The Army Research Laboratory Alternative Organizational and Management Options (1994) / Chapter Skim
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6 GOCO ARL OPTION
6 GOCO ARL OPTION
Pages 100-120
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From page 100... ...
The formal features of a GOCO organization are set out by the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) in Policy Letter 84-]
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From page 103... ...
Its customers, to whom technology products must be transferred, would require confidence that their links to the new contractor laboratory were reliable and free of conflict of interest (Laslic, 1993; Meise} and Jacobs, 1979~. WorId-CIass Land Warfare Research Of all the options considered by the committee the GOCO ARL option offers the best chance for ARL to conduct, and be recognized for, superior technical work.
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From page 104... ...
This involvement gives staff daily guidance and insight into the views of the leadership, enhancing the quality of the technical work accomplished. The need to administer federal personnel and procurement regulations tends to prevent senior ARL managers from participating in this way (Army Research Laboratory, 1993~.
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From page 105... ...
DOE is seeking to have each laboratory develop a high-level advisory committee patterned after those long used by several of these laboratories. A number of the DOD FFRDCs are independent corporations and have corporate boards heavily populated with senior executives with in-depth R&D and government policy experience (Aerospace Corporation, 1993; MITRE Corporation, 1993; RAND Corporation, 1993~.
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From page 107... ...
For example, the Center for Naval Analysis routinely provides personnel for shipboard evaluations at sea; MITRE Corporation personnel flew on each flight of the prototype Joint Surveillance and Tactical Airborne Radar System during Operation Desert Storm; and the DOE GOCO laboratories have provided personnel for on-site inspection in Russia. Ability to Leverage Funds and Programs Reductions in budgets have raised interest in how ARL might take advantage of R&D done outside the Army, in commercial and academic laboratories, and in the laboratories of other government agencies.
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From page 108... ...
Thus, a judicious choice of contractor entity to manage the GOCO could provide the cultural environment and set of existing relationships with infused and academia needed for ARL to better leverage external funds and programs. One area of technology transfer in which GOCO laboratories have not excelled is in the development of CRADAs.
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From page 112... ...
, requires that an agency perform a cost study when proposing the conversion of an existing internal activity to a commercial activity (Gamboa, 1993~. If applicable, these requirements could create an issue for the conversion of ARL, because conversion to the GOCO ARL option (or the ARL Multicenter option)
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From page 113... ...
Inherently Governmental Functions By statute, the government may not contract out "inherently governmental functions." The OFPP issued Policy Letter 92-1 in an attempt to Claris this issue and seeks to spell out what are inherently governmental functions (Office of Federal Procurement Policy, 1992~. The policy letter does not deal specifically with R&D, and is careful to say that its opinions may not be legally valid.
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From page 114... ...
(In fact, an ARL GOCO could be modeled after the Electrical Power Research Institute, in which almost all of the work is done by contractors with only some highly specialized analytical activities carried out internally; this, in fact, is substantially the ARL Multicenter option discussed in Chapter 5.) Personnel Issues One major issue area would be the resolution of personnel issues the termination of personnel from the civil service system, and whether and how they would be offered private employment in the new organization.
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From page 115... ...
Choosing a Conversion Method and Creating a Contract As mentioned earlier, the Army has various alternatives in creating a GOCO ARE,, like creating a new FFRDC as a private contracted corporation uniquely formed to manage ARL or to having an open competition to create and manage the laboratory strictly as a GOCO. Each of these alternatives raises its own issues.
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From page 116... ...
However, such a conversion might generate support from the Office of the Secretary of Defense, which would facilitate the conversion. Considering these ambiguities and the necessary approval process, it seems reasonable to estimate that once the Army decides to convert ARL into a GOCO organization, it would take at least SEX months to gain the necessary approvals (first as a GOCO and then as an FFRDC under OFPP Policy Letter 84-~.
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From page 118... ...
It would also be small compared with the advantage to the Army of having a highly respected GOCO laboratory.
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From page 120... ...
1992. OFPP Policy Letter 92-l, Inherently Governmental Functions.
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