Name Change

Tuesday, 18 September 2018 10:11 Nick Sanders
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They say you can’t judge a book by its cover but, perhaps, one can glean something from an organizational name or title. When one receives an email from an individual running a small business, whose signature includes: Founder, CEO, President, COO, and CFO then (perhaps) that offers a small insight into that individual’s character. Similarly, when one’s LinkedIn profile includes all the Certifications and Degrees right there in the title (just after the name) then that might say something as well.

In the mid-90’s it was called Defense Procurement and Acquisition Reform. That told you right there what the mission was.

Later, it became Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy (DPAP). For many years, DPAP executed its mission to be “responsible for all acquisition and procurement policy matters in the [DoD], including serving as the principal advisor to the Under Secretary on acquisition/procurement strategies for all major weapon systems programs, major automated information systems programs, and services acquisitions.” Clearly, the new mission had de-emphasized acquisition reform in favor of strategic advisory services (“strategery”?).

A while ago DPAP spun off “Defense Pricing” which didn’t seem to have any mission of its own. At least, it didn’t have a separate website and it was challenging to figure out the chain of command. As one might guess from the title, Defense Pricing focused on the price paid by the DoD for its weapon systems. An early Defense Pricing initiative was “should-cost” analyses. Defense Pricing advised the F-35 PEO regarding negotiating strategies.

While Defense Pricing was doing its thing, DPAP continued to update the DFARS and the associated PGI, as interim and final rules were issued. Our opinion of that process is, shall we say, well known to readers of this blog.

And then Congress forced a reorganization of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (AT&L) and the ripple effects caused a reunion (so to speak) of Defense Pricing and DPAP, under the sole direction of the Director of Defense Pricing/Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy. And that combined organization executed its mission—which was basically the old mission—for several months.

Then, on September 11, 2018, the organization changed its name. It is now known as Defense Pricing and Contracting (DPC). See this memo.

As we noted above, if you go by the organization’s name, you might think that it’s now superseding the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) and is managing contracting activity on behalf of DoD. That does not seem to be the case.

Yet.

In fact, the mission of the newly named organization is a bit unclear at the moment. The announcement memo (link above) states “The DPC office is currently evaluating our mission, function, and responsibility. Additional information will be provided at a later date based on our determinations.”

So time will tell exactly how DPC will contribute to the success of the warfighters.

In the meantime, the newly named organization announced on August 21, 2018, that some scammers are trying to represent themselves as being DP/DPAP/DPC. The announcement (found on the DP/DPAP/DPC website, stated, “We have been advised that an individual may be impersonating Mr. Shay Assad, Director, Defense Pricing and Contracting (formerly Defense Pricing/Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy) by email and/or telephone in an attempt to obtain software/equipment/etc. This office does not issue solicitations or buy directly; we are a policy office. The Pentagon Force Protection Agency advises you contact your local law enforcement office if you question the legitimacy of a request or solicitation. Also, forwarding a copy of the suspect email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it enables the Department to track the email as a phishing attempt.”

So if somebody reaches out to you and says they are Shay Assad, Director, DPC (or Director of any other DoD directorate), and asks for software/equipment/etc., then you should report the scam as requested above.