Preserving capacity, General Tom Lawson, Chief of the Defence Staff, Keys to Canadian SAR
Issue link: http://vanguardcanada.uberflip.com/i/716217
P Procurement tive. The CAF should create procurement occupational classifications with their own promotion and career advancement tracks, selected from the top ranks of the military cohort in order to professionalize the military's procurement activities. Over the last decade, the limited capac- ity of the existing workforce has been fur- ther strained by the addition of numerous steps in the procurement process, as new governance structures and policies were layered on top of old. The impact over time has made it increasingly complicated to acquire equipment for the Canadian military, in part because the rules intro- duced to address problematic aspects of the most complicated procurements are applied across the board. Efforts to ra- tionalize this complexity were launched within DND in 2011 and across govern- ment in 2014 with the Defence Procure- ment Strategy. The former effort revised DND's process for authorizing only those defence procurements which can be approved by the Minister of National Defence, while no progress is evident on the latter initiative. The revised project approval process inside Defence should be extended to all defence procurements, and a revised procurement process across government should be examined. The changes made to the process of screening Syrian refugees could serve as a template, with a focus placed on finding activities that currently occur in sequence which could take place concurrently. A final measure that will help better align existing capacity and make better use of it once it increases, is a greater prioritization of DND's planned equip- ment projects. Given the imbalance be- tween existing project demand and the ability actually to execute, the Defence Policy Review must identify which ma- jor projects are priorities. Limited human resources have been spread too thinly across too many procurements, result- ing in delay across the board. Focusing efforts on the projects that matter most, and devoting the effort to ensuring those are prepared for the needed senior ap- provals in a timely manner would allow the most important to move forward more expeditiously. Beyond an increased ability actually to procure military equipment, significant improvement is also needed in how de- fence procurement is communicated to Canadians. Too little effort is currently devoted to explaining major purchases in a manner that articulates the rationale behind their enormous financial outlays and sets out realistic expectations about the difficulty associated with acquiring them. These communication shortcom- ings cause issues in the public eye, as proj- ects which are unlikely to live up to the frequently unrealistic expectations seem set up for failure. In recent times, too of- ten the government of Canada has either failed to discuss procurements or has done so only reactively. The resulting commu- nication void is then filled by companies jockeying (understandably) for corporate position in a way that creates a highly negative image around specific procure- ments and serves to undermine confi- dence in all defence procurement. More frequent and proactive communication of realistic and accurate information about specific defence procurement projects can help improve the overall perception of procurement. This would, in turn, re- duce the likelihood of procurement files becoming issues that must be managed by what are inevitably risk-avoidant, and therefore slow, approaches. Finally, the most important factor which could improve the state of defence pro- curement is a clear indication that acquir- ing military equipment matters to the government and senior leaders in the bu- reaucracy. Without such an indication, risk avoidance will predominate at the expense of procuring equipment. For this reason, the 'deliverology' approach embraced by the new government should be applied to defence procurement, and the focus placed on actual equipment delivery. David Perry is the senior analyst and a fellow with the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. he is the author of multiple pub- lications related to defence budgeting, transformation and procurement. he oen provides comment for Canadian and inter- national media on defence and security is- sues. canada's largest postwar procurement project, the canadian surface combatant, is losing a million dollars' worth of buying power for each day the project is delayed. www.vanguardcanada.com AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016 33