Here is more, again citing former DND ADM(Mat) Alan Williams, from today’s (10 Jan 07) Globe and Mail, reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions of the Copyright Act:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070110.wxdefence10/BNStory/National/home
I agree with Mr. Williams on two points:
1. It is, indeed, the responsibility of the civilian administration to decide how much of everything – money, men and materiel – and what sort of everything the CDS will be given in order to accomplish the tasks assigned by the government of the day. The CDS can beg and plead and explain and bluster and threaten but, at the end of the dsay, a civilians decide; and
2. There ought to be “a body that would be responsible for major purchases from DND” – but I am certain that he and I would disagree on how it ought to work.
Everything else Mr. Williams says, according to Daniel Leblanc, anyway, is unadulterated rubbish.
The military has not “grabbed control of the procurement process from the hands of the department's civilian branch.” It may be that some military operational requirements have constrained the level to which politicians and bureaucrats can muddy the procurement system to achieve political pork-barreling ends and it may be that Gen. Hillier’s public diplomacy has persuaded ministers and the PCO of the urgency of some procurement actions. Neither equates to grabbing control of the process.
"These de facto sole-sourced contracts,” as Williams describes them, show only that DND’s operational and support system were allowed to rust out thanks to a combination of bureaucratic ineptitude – over which Mr. Williams presided – and M. Chrétien’s Trudeauistic political mischief.
If Gen. Hillier’s ‘civilian counterparts aren't exercising appropriate oversight these days’ then they have only themselves and their political masters to blame. But, I do not believe that any such failure exists. Kevin Lynch, the Clerk of the Privy Council, the most senior civil servant in the country, has (perhaps by silence) approved everything DND has done. That is, as it must be, good enough for every bureaucrat in Canada. Civilian oversight is alive and well – it is just that decades of neglect have some home to roost and Canada must now face the fact that there are limited choices when suitable kit is required on an urgent basis.
When Mr. Williams says: "There is no strong civilian authority in place to question or to challenge this," he is really saying, “I don’t have my old job with the big office and all the power lunches any more.” I, for one, say: ”Thank heavens!”
There is a need for major reform to the national military procurement system. It is a totally ineffective and inefficient system which, habitually, takes too long to acquire the equipment DND needs and then pays too much for it. There are too many cooks; that’s why the broth is so often spoilt.
DND’s military equipment should be procured by an ‘arms length’ body.
If Canada can sell its military hardware through such an arms length agency - http://www.ccc.ca/eng/home.cfm then there is no reason why we cannot use a similar, sister agency to buy military hardware.
We need to get military procurement away from all of DND, Public Works and Government Services, Treasury Board, Industry Canada and a half dozen other government departments and agencies which, routinely, are involved in procurement decisions – almost always slowing the process and adding costs. We need a system in which:
• The military defines its operational requirements – in performance terms;
• DND civilians confirm the military’ requirements meet approved defence policy objectives and, working with the military staff, secure financial resources from the government;
• Cabinet and parliament approve the requirements and budgets;
• The Treasury Board allocates the funds; and
• The ‘arms length’ works in the market to find, select and purchase equipment and facilities which meet DND’s requirements within the approved budget.
