An ode to privatization.... This story begins during the Cold War. When we learned that the Finns, were buying Force Fins for export to Russia, Bob Evans called the Pentagon to exclaim: "The Russians are buying our U.S. Made Force Fins, where are you guys?" That prompted transfer of his call to the then head of procurement, who tasked the Navy with testing Force Fins...... And so it began, the Pro Model Force Fin became a fin of choice for the US Navy and Special Operations Forces around the World. And everything went along as it should, with orders flowing by and between the US Government, its prime vendors, and Force Fin without a hitch, and our military divers receiving the products they chose as best for their use. Then, suddenly a few years ago everything stopped. We received a call from an Officer with Seal Team One, inquiring what was up since he was told that they could no longer purchase Force Fins. After some investigation, it was revealed that the MOE code for Force Fin had been erroneously entered into the Defense Logistic Agency System as allowing our US made product to be sold only outside the US, and not available for purchase by US Forces. The DLA purchasing system had recently been upgraded by the private company contracted to administer procurement. Apparently, a mistake in coding had been made. Unfortunately, there really was no way to correct it..... other than 82 emails and prodding by the inquisitive Naval Officer who helped us to discover the error, some submariners who joined in the flurry,.... not to mention the then Director of Joint Operations for the Pacific Fleet...... Finally, the MOE code for Force Fin was corrected. End users within the US military and other US government agencies were once again allowed by the private contractor who now controlled their purchasing choices to buy Force Fins. Next chapter..... The CAGE code is an identification system within the US Government, assignment of which is necessary to receipt of awards, contracts or orders from the US Government. The Cage Code for our Company is 08FS2, which was assigned January 3, 1997. The DLA cannot locate existence of our CAGE Code, nor any history of our company doing business with the US Government. It is and for some time has been denying all requests by US government agencies and US military for purchase of Force Fin products. When we referred our Point of Contact within DLA to the public listing of our CAGE, as our Company has opted to make its CAGE Code publicly accessible, the history of doing business and authorization for purchase of Force Fin products is miraculously this time found within the DLA procurement system. This time the error apparently could be fixed without hoop jumping, or with just 3 emails and verification that everything had always been correct and authorized with the US General Service Administration. In the meantime, our US government and military clients have been denied purchasing of our US Made Force Fins by the private contractors administering their purchasing during their most active buying period...... while, the Finns, Swedes, Danish, Dutch, Swiss, Germans, Italians, UAE, Greece, and Russians, etc.... have no problem receiving theirs.
Posted on: Thu, 26 Sep 2013 19:36:08 +0000
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