European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 20, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Beat with an army procurement cop by Sandra Sugawara Washington Post Ark Lumer readily admits he May be one of the most hated men at the . Army communications electronics come at fort Monmouth . In fact he said he checks his car for sabotage every night before he leaves work. And he s not kidding. Lumer is a procurement cop. His actual title at cecum the Agency that buys communications and electronics equipment for the army is solicitation ombudsman a powerful new position created seven months ago by cecum commander maj. Gen. Billy m. Thomas. The position represents a unique attempt to make cecum s procurement system More equitable and to avoid the often drawn out formal contract protest process an important Experiment at a time when Many people involved in the Federal procurement process Are concerned that it has become too cumbersome and prone to corruption. Lumer is empowered to halt any contracts that May be tainted by leaks of inside information that May be tilted unfairly in favor of one company or those that just appear to be based on poorly conceived procurement solicitations. I can Stop any single procurement where i feel it is overpriced Gold plated or just does t make sense said Lumer who reports directly to Thomas and ranks above cecum s other contracting officers. If i feel there s been a leak or a swing toward one company i la Stop it change it or cancel  that kind of Power is what makes Lumer an unpopular Man among cecum s engineers and contracting staff whose decisions he is allowed to overrule. The worker bees in the trenches say who the hell is this Guy telling me i can t have this requirement he said. Like i said i do Check the car before i leave at  the Experiment at fort Monmouth has attracted attention elsewhere in the Pentagon and at other Federal agencies amid growing concern that the Federal procurement system is being increasingly paralysed by bureaucratic red tape mindless requirements accusations of improper behaviour and the volume of protests to the general accounting office and the general service administration Board of contract appeals. Among those that have expressed interest in the cecum Experiment is Gen. Louis c. Wagner commanding general of the army Materiel come. The creation of the solicitation ombudsman position at cecum coincides with a recommendation by a special committee of the american bar association that Federal agencies adopt in House mechanisms for Quick informal and Independent review of procurement disputes. Officials at cecum which has an annual procurement budget of $4.4 billion Are trying to Send a message to Industry Lumer said that it is not Worth Vieu �n�rm., Umi a was  run you 85 cents. Bur tar two unarmed Forck i ? Mark it Cwm 1b five a lip a Bucks know what / Man trying to win a contract through improper and unethical Means. Otherwise he said we re going to Stop the procurement. We re not going to let it go  cecum officials Hope the new system will stanch the flood of costly and time consuming procurement protests Freedom of information requests and congressional inquiries that have plagued cecum As Well As the rest of the Federal government in recent years. In fiscal 1988, cecum had 53 formal protests a figure that had been increasing 10 percent to 25 percent annually in recent years. It receives 1,500 Foi requests on procurements annually and one congressional inquiry on procurements a week. But since the solicitation ombudsman position was established in May cecum contract protests have dropped by about 30 percent procurement related Foi requests have dropped by 22 percent and congressional inquiries on procurements have dropped about 15 percent. Cecum officials claim the system has saved the government at least $500,000. Lumer who gets an average of six inquiries a Day about cecum procurements most of them from contractors said he has had to cancel Only one contract. In that Case cecum threw out a company that should t have been thrown out of the Competition Lumer said. They did t get a fair  he ordered that the contract be recomputed. In most cases he said he is Able to get cecum procurement officials to cooperate in ironing out contract problems merely by threatening to cancel the contract. Lumer said he has suspended contracts some for a few Days and others for up to 30 Days until he is convinced that he has sufficient information to resolve a problem. Such suspensions usually Are far Shorter than the formal contract suspensions that can occur during Gao or Gas contract appeals Board protests. In one of the most recent suspensions issued in december a company claimed that a procurement was slanted in favor of another bidder. The deadline for the proposals was next week but Lumer imposed a two week delay in order to investigate the bidder s complaints. Lumer said cecum officials try to stress that the solicitation ombudsman program is not designed to criticize the Agency s contracting or technical staff. In most cases they re just following the rules and regulations and doing what we trained them to do he said. For instance he said one solicitation for a contract to buy Telephone handsets required the contractor to do environmental stress studies to prove the Handset could operate in All environments. A bidder called to question the requirement noting that the Handset had been used for 25 years around the world with no difficulties. Lumer decided that the tests were unnecessary and the army deleted them saving the government an estimated $25,000 to $40,000. In Many such cases Lumer said the army engineers and contracting officials who draw up contract solicitations have correctly followed regulations and procedures but Lack the authority to make the changes he can make in the solicitation requirements. Frank Musorrafiti president of engineering and professional services inc., a new Jersey company that filed several protests against cecum contracts before the creation of the ombudsman s Post said that he has used the ombudsman system to avoid filing two protests. Under the old system he said the procurement  so vast that to try to get an answer to something was difficult without formally lodging a protest or requesting information under the Foi act. But now Musorrafiti said the solicitation ombudsman has virtually eliminated the bureaucracy that is placed in front of you each time you have a  in one Case Musorrafiti turned to the ombudsman because he Felt his firm had been unfairly eliminated from a Competition and he could not get a satisfactory explanation for the rejection. Lumer explained to Musorrafiti Why his company s proposal had been inadequate. Even though his firm was not allowed Back in the Competition Musorrafiti said he was satisfied that he had gotten a straight  Pat Nolletti a manufacturing representative for several defense contractors that Supply cecum said the solicitation ombudsman position should have been created 10 years ago As Federal procurements became More massive and Complex. It s something that ought to be implemented throughout the military he said. Page 16 the stars and stripes Friday january 20,1989