Navy Secretary Ray Mabus outlined new initiatives on Friday to improve the process of contracting for services when ships arrive in foreign ports in wake of the Glenn Defense Marine scandal that has implicated several Navy officials.
Mabus said the Navy was planning to create standardized requirements and contracts for the services, as well as increase oversight of so-called “husbanding” contracts. The Navy will also increase the use of firm fixed price line items and curtail the use of unpriced line items.
The service plans to provide better guidance to ship-based contracting officers. Mabus said he was also ordering an audit of husbanding port service contracts.
Two executives from Glenn Defense Marine Asia have been federally charged with bribing Navy officers with cash and prostitutes to gain insight on the contracting process. Several Navy officers have also been charged, including one from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service who allegedly supplied information about the probe to defendants.
Mabus said the case was unacceptable and the service would continue to investigate contracting fraud in its ranks. He suggested there could be more arrests in the Glenn Defense Marine case.