The Defense Department Office of Inspector General has called on procurement and logistics officials at DoD to update the military’s contract management system and the designation sample template form for a contracting officer’s representative.
IG said Tuesday it reviewed 16 contracts as part of a review of COR performance in the Combined/Joint Operations Area−Afghanistan and found inappropriate appointments of CORs after revisions to COR designation guidelines.
“None of the 24 COR designation letters dated after DoD guidelines for designation letters were revised in March 2015 met the additional requirements included in the revised guidelines,†IG said.
“As a result, CORs may not be fully aware of contract requirements and the importance of contract oversight to the requiring activity,†IG added.
A COR is a government contracting officer-designated personnel who performs technical and administrative tasks for government contracts.
The IG also said the contracting activities failed to establish an oversight framework for four of 16 contracts to confirm that contracted services complied with contract requirements.
“Without a strong oversight framework, the contracting activities had limited assurance that these four contractors were meeting the performance standards required by the contracts,†IG said.
The IG added that U.S. Transportation Command, Special Operations Command and the Defense Contract Management Agency agreed to change their instructions to align COR designation letters with the revised DoD guidelines.
