The Pentagon's director of defense procurement and acquisition policy said the Department of Defense would place a greater emphasis on price when negotiating the purchase of weapons or systems. Shay Assad said that the Pentagon's Better Buying Power initiative will help the department save money and direct resources toward targeted priorities, according to an article in Defense News.
Here are some key quotes published in the article:
- "[Price] should always be important. There may be times when it's difficult to place price as the most important thing, but it ought to be pretty important every single time."
- Ashton Carter, the Pentagon's acquisition chief, will be announcing "an increased emphasis on pricing, an increased emphasis on understanding what it is that we're paying for the goods and services that we buy."
- "I think as you see coming down the road here, price is going to play a role in everything that we do, it has to."
- Like private companies, the Pentagon must intelligently determine what the price should be and receiving discounts for money spent upfront. "We're the only company in the world that tries to spend our money as fast as we can and get nothing for it."
- "Every other company treats cash for what it is and only tries to spend it when they absolutely have to and spend it only right before they have to. In our case: Spend it as quickly as you possibly can, get it obligated, get it out the door, get it expended.”
