By Debbie Gregory.

An investigation conducted by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has revealed that of the $6.2 million budget allocated to the Department of Veterans Affairs for suicide prevention outreach in fiscal year 2018, the agency only spent $1.5 million by the end of the fiscal year, leaving $4.7 million unused.

Suicide among veterans is disproportionately higher than the rest of the U.S. population, especially among veterans younger than 35. And in light of the VA leadership touting suicide prevention a top priority, this information begs the question, why?

The suicide prevention budget was meant to cover outreach via social media posts, public service announcements, billboards, and radio, bus, Facebook and print advertisements, which all declined in 2017 and 2018, as did the effort on suicide prevention month.

“VA has stated that preventing veteran suicide is its top clinical priority, yet [the Veterans Health Administration’s] lack of leadership attention to its suicide prevention media outreach campaign in recent years has resulted in less outreach to veterans,” the GAO report states.

The GAO investigation came at the request of Rep. Tim Walz (D-MN), the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. He said that the findings conveyed “a deeply troubling level of incompetence” by President Donald Trump’s administration.

“At a time when 20 veterans a day still die by suicide, VA should be doing everything in its power to inform the public about the resources available to veterans in crisis,” Walz said in a statement. “Unfortunately, VA has failed to do that, despite claiming the elimination of veteran suicide as its highest clinical priority.”

The VA blamed leadership vacancies for the downturn, with the former national director for suicide prevention, Caitlin Thompson, resigning in July 2017, and not being replace until the new director, Keita Franklin, was appointed in April, 2018.

“Officials reported not having leadership available for a period of time to make decisions about the suicide prevention media outreach campaign,” the report states. “GAO found that [VA] did not assign key leadership responsibilities or establish clear lines of reporting, and as a result, its ability to oversee the outreach campaign was hindered. Consequently, [the VA] may not be maximizing its reach with suicide prevention media content to veterans, especially those who are at-risk.”

“This year, I’m making sure that we are spending the funding 100 percent,” said Dr. Steven Lieberman, who is in charge of the Veterans Health Administration. “I’m reviewing the budget monthly and making sure we have obligated all the dollars. We have to get it right.”

By Debbie Gregory.

The Pentagon has yet to make a decision as to what company will be awarded a multi-billion dollar contract for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract, the cloud technology infrastructure that will handle unclassified material as well as data classified as secret or top secret.

The choice to go with a single-award, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract for the project has had tech companies taking their gripes to federal court. It is believed that Amazon Web Services is the front-runner.

Oracle filed a suit against the Department of Defense in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in early December, and the redacted complaint was published December 10th.

Oracle has claimed since the start of the process that this approach would lock the government into legacy tech and could damage innovation, competition and security – and that it goes against various rules on government procurement for high-value awards.

The lawsuit repeated these assertions, but also alleges conflicts of interest within the DoD and that the Pentagon “crafted” the request for proposals criteria to limit the number of vendors that could compete.

It also claims the government has introduced “unduly restrictive requirements” into the criteria required for vendors to bid, which will “cause Oracle significant competitive prejudice”.

IBM, which first filed a protest of JEDI October 10th, filed additional materials with Government Accountability Office (GAO) November 19th in support of its claim that the DoD has turned its back on the wishes of Congress and the administration, as well as industry best practice in cloud acquisition.

Lawmakers have already called for an investigation into the JEDI contract, saying that it appeared tailored to one specific vendor.

The GAO has until February 27, 2019, to issue a decision on IBM’s protest.

By Debbie Gregory.

It scours the bottom of Navy ships, invades the crevices of Air Force jets and costs the Pentagon more money annually than many of its most expensive weapons systems—up to $21 billion per year, according to a Defense Department-commissioned audit.

Corrosion happens to anything exposed to weather, including the metals that make up modern weapons systems like fighter jets, ships, ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons.

In 2002, the department established the Office of Corrosion Policy and Oversight to ensure big-dollar weapons systems weren’t taken offline by oxidation and to help branches determine how much money ought to be spent on rust prevention.

Technically, the problem is bigger than just rust. Rust is only the most commonly known type of corrosion, and occurs when iron reacts with water or moist air. The broader category includes any type of metal broken down or disintegrated by a chemical reaction. Data being reported by the military branches has been inconsistent and the office has yet to issue guidance on how funding levels should be categorized, according to a related audit released Thursday by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

“The Army data GAO received did not reconcile with data presented in the Corrosion Office annual reports to Congress for five of eight fiscal years,” auditors wrote. “The Navy data did not reconcile for two of eight fiscal years, and there was no supporting documentation identifying how these figures were calculated. Air Force officials did not provide any figures or supporting documentation for four fiscal years, stating that these figures were not available.”

Army officials told GAO they’re not able to accurately report how much is spent preventing or combating corrosion because many of those duties are performed by personnel who do many other things, as well.

“The corrosion-related costs of conducting the corrosion executive role are not separated from this other function,” they told GAO.

The GAO has made the following recommendations to the Defense Department:

• Issue guidance for identifying and reviewing funding levels for performing corrosion executive duties.
• Ensure that the Corrosion Office develops a process to maintain documentation of its reviews of corrosion planning.
• Ensure that corrosion executives establish guidance on reviewing the adequacy of corrosion planning.

While the military is looking into more coating options – from aluminum- to polyurethane-based waterproofing – there are some alternatives. Cathodic protection is an electro-chemical process that prevents corrosion entirely, and super-finishing is a surface treatment process that prevents damage from friction.