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Title: How the Unraveling of Two Pentagon Projects May Result In a Costly Do-
Over

Link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/08/13/2334...

The Pentagon is poised to cancel two nearly finished Navy and Air Force HR
software projects worth over $800 million so new contracts can be awarded to
other vendors, including Salesforce, Palantir, and Workday. "The reason for
the unusual move: officials at those departments, who have so far put the
existing projects on hold, want other firms, including Salesforce and
billionaire Peter Thiel's Palantir, to have a chance to win similar projects,
which could amount to a costly do-over," reports Reuters. From the report: In
2019, Accenture said it had won a contract to expand an HR platform to
modernize the payroll, absence management, and other HR functions for the Air
Force with Oracle software. The project, which includes other vendors and was
later expanded to include Space Force, grew to cost $368 million and was
scheduled for its first deployment this summer at the Air Force Academy. An
April "status update" on the project conducted by the Air Force and obtained
by Reuters described the project as "on track," with initial deployment
scheduled for June, noting that it would end up saving the Air Force $39
million annually by allowing it to stop using an older system. But on May 30,
Darlene Costello, then-Acting assistant Secretary of the Air Force, sent out
a memo placing a "strategic pause" on the project for ninety days and calling
for the study of alternate technical solutions, according to a copy of the
memo seen by Reuters that was previously unreported. Costello, who has since
retired, was reacting to pressure from other Air Force officials who wanted
to steer a new HR project to SalesForce and Palantir, three sources said.
[...] The Air Force said in a statement that it "is committed to reforming
acquisition practices, assessing the acquisition workforce, and identifying
opportunities to improve major defense acquisition programs." Space Force,
which operates within the Air Force, was set to receive the Air Force's new
payroll system in the coming months. But it is also pulling out of the
project because officials there want to launch yet another HR platform
project to be led by Workday, according to three people familiar with the
matter. The service put out a small business tender on May 7 for firms to
research HR platform alternatives, with the goal of selecting a company that
will recommend Workday as the best option, the people said. Now the Air Force
and Space Force "want to start over with vendors that do not meet their
requirements, leading to significant duplication and massive costs," said
John Weiler, director of the Information Technology Acquisition Advisory
Council, a government-chartered nonprofit group that makes recommendations to
improve federal IT contracting. In 2022, the Honolulu-based Nakupuna
Companies took over a 2019 project with other firms to integrate the Navy's
payroll and personnel systems into one platform using Oracle software and
known as "NP2". The project, which has cost about $425 million since 2023,
according to the Government Accountability Office, was set to be rolled out
earlier this year after receiving a positive review by independent reviewer
and consulting firm Guidehouse in January, according to a copy obtained by
Reuters. But the head of Navy's human resources, now retired Admiral Rick
Cheeseman, sought to cancel the project according to a June 5 memo seen by
Reuters, directing another official to "take appropriate contractual actions"
to cancel the project. Navy leaders instead mandated yet another assessment
of project, according to a memo seen by Reuters, leaving it in limbo, two
sources said. Cheeseman's reason for trying to kill the project was his anger
over a decision by DOGE earlier this year to cancel a $171 million contract
for data services provider Pantheon Data that essentially duplicated parts of
the HR project. In an email obtained by Reuters, he threatened to withhold
funding from the Nakupuna-led project unless the Pantheon contract was
restored. "I am beyond exasperated with how this happened," Cheeseman wrote
in a May 7 email to Chief Information Officer Jane Rathbun about the contract
cancellation, arguing the Pantheon contract was not "duplicative of any
effort." "From where I sit, I'm content taking every dime away from NP2 in
order to continue this effort," he added in the email. The pausing of NP2 was
"unexpected, especially given that multiple comprehensive reviews validated
the technical solution as the fastest and most affordable approach," Nakupuna
said in a statement, adding it was disappointed by the change because the
project was ready to deploy. The Navy said it "continues to prioritize
essential personnel resources in support of efforts to strengthen military
readiness through fiscal responsibility and departmental efficiency."

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