National Academies Press: OpenBook

Strategies for Obtaining Ship Services: Alternatives for NOAA (1988)

Chapter: 6. Findings and Recommendations

« Previous: 5. Case Histories, Assessment of Alternatives, and Guidelines for Chartering
Suggested Citation:"6. Findings and Recommendations." National Research Council. 1988. Strategies for Obtaining Ship Services: Alternatives for NOAA. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1920.
×
Page 55
Suggested Citation:"6. Findings and Recommendations." National Research Council. 1988. Strategies for Obtaining Ship Services: Alternatives for NOAA. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1920.
×
Page 56
Suggested Citation:"6. Findings and Recommendations." National Research Council. 1988. Strategies for Obtaining Ship Services: Alternatives for NOAA. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1920.
×
Page 57
Suggested Citation:"6. Findings and Recommendations." National Research Council. 1988. Strategies for Obtaining Ship Services: Alternatives for NOAA. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1920.
×
Page 58

Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

6 FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS The findings and recommendations of the committee are as follows: 1. Finding: The NOAA Fleet represents a significant and unique part of the total Federal Oceanographic Fleet. As such, decisions regarding its future should be made in the context of total national needs. RECOMMENDATION: Policy decisions concerning the future of the NOAA Fleet should ensure that the capability to support national interest at sea is strengthened, not diminished. 2. Finding: Ocean research and data acquisition will most probably increase as a consequence of the 1983 declaration of an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) extending 200 miles offshore, the increased use of marine resources, the national commitment to global ocean investiga- tion, and the level of future NOAA activities in bathymetry, fisheries, and oceanography. The NOAA Fleet will play an important role in accomplishing this task. RECOMMENDATION: NOAA should take action to ensure that it will be able to provide the nation with the required capability to perform marine resource assessment and oceanographic research in the future. 3. Finding: Industry and other governmental agencies have used chartering to obtain sophisticated and cost-effective oceanographic services. In selected program areas, NOAA potentially could use chartering to comparable advantage to help to meet its ship needs and to bring new and more sophisticated vessels into national service. Other program areas are not conducive to chartering. RECOMMENDATION: In selected program areas, NOAA should establish and implement policy that encourages the acquisition of short- and long-term ship services through a variety of chartering mechanisms. 55

56 RECOMMENDATION: NOAA should commission the conduct of a study to define the characteristics of an idealized fleet to meet present and projected ship services needs. The results of this study should serve as the basis for the modernization of the NOAA Fleet and the implementation of a program for chartering ship services. RECOMMENDATION: NOAA should prepare a carefully designed request for proposal (RFP) for chartering ships to service one or more mission areas. It is the committee's belief that bathymetric surveying of the EEZ should be offered to interested contractors as promptly as a carefully drawn RFP can be prepared and multLyear chartering authorization can be obtained. Only through an RFP will definitive information be developed on chartering costs and vessel availability. Once the government has definitive information on contractor costs and services and its own costs and requirements, it can make an informed decision about contracting for vessel services. 4. Finding: The committee has attempted to obtain data to compare the cost of services of contractors to NOAA-performed oceanographic services. The data from respondents were inconclusive due primarily to lack of specificity in standards and tolerances provided for each mission area. The committee believes that only through the issuance of a carefully prepared RFP, which would include incentives for high performance by contractors and clear intent to make a contract award, will competitive and reliable cost data be obtained. RECOMMENDATION: NOAA should issue a full RFP for EEZ bathymetric surveying and convey a serious intent to award a long-term contract in order to obtain accurate cost data. This should be undertaken by NOAA as an experimental programs with a clear recognition that funds must be set aside to implement this recommendation. 5. Finding: NOAA is justifiably apprehensive about ensuring contractor responsiveness and the quality of products produced. RECOMMENDATION: NOAA should accept the direct responsibility for defining its expectations in standards and tolerances that become part of any RFP and contract documents that may result from a successful solicitation. Other federal agency successes and failures should be fully understood. 6. Finding: For many chartering alternatives, long-term charters are more cost-effective and attractive than short-term charters. NOAA's past chartering experience has not included long-term contracting. It is not clear to the committee that NOAA is able to enter into long-term multiyear contracts for ship charters and scientific services. Other agencies appear to have such authorization.

57 RECOMMENDATION: NOAA should establish agency policy and procedures to enter into long-term multiyear contracts for ship charters and related scientific services. 7. Finding: The legal implications pertaining to nautical charts were not examined in detail by this committee. However, the committee understands that NOAA has the responsibility to support its nautical charts in litigation. RECOMMENDATION: Hydrographic survey ship operations for the purpose of preparing nautical charts should not be chartered out until the implications are fully understood. 8. Finding: Problems appear to occur most frequently where techni Cal procurement documents are prepared in a central procurement office by individuals not intimately familiar with the tasks to be accomplished or services to be rendered at sea. RECOMMENDATION: NOAA should establish a technical capability within its procurement organization that will be fully cognizant of and sympathetic with the needs of scientific personnel.

Next: References and Background Material »
Strategies for Obtaining Ship Services: Alternatives for NOAA Get This Book
×
Buy Paperback | $40.00
MyNAP members save 10% online.
Login or Register to save!
  1. ×

    Welcome to OpenBook!

    You're looking at OpenBook, NAP.edu's online reading room since 1999. Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website.

    Do you want to take a quick tour of the OpenBook's features?

    No Thanks Take a Tour »
  2. ×

    Show this book's table of contents, where you can jump to any chapter by name.

    « Back Next »
  3. ×

    ...or use these buttons to go back to the previous chapter or skip to the next one.

    « Back Next »
  4. ×

    Jump up to the previous page or down to the next one. Also, you can type in a page number and press Enter to go directly to that page in the book.

    « Back Next »
  5. ×

    To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter.

    « Back Next »
  6. ×

    Share a link to this book page on your preferred social network or via email.

    « Back Next »
  7. ×

    View our suggested citation for this chapter.

    « Back Next »
  8. ×

    Ready to take your reading offline? Click here to buy this book in print or download it as a free PDF, if available.

    « Back Next »
Stay Connected!