Services, IT support cut to save millions in Coast Guard's 2012 budget
The Coast Guard is looking for savings from contractors and reduced IT support to shift resources to its operations.
The Coast Guard expects to save $22 million in fiscal 2012 by reducing professional services contracts and computer help desk contracts, Admiral Robert J. Papp, commandant of the Coast Guard, told a House subcommittee today.
Professional services contracts would be decreased by $15 million, while workstation help desk support would be consolidated into two regional centers, resulting in savings of $7 million and a loss of 56 contracting positions, Papp told the House Transportation Subcommittee on the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation.
The budget proposal also includes $61 million in savings to be generated through management efficiencies, including a reduction in advice and assistance contracts. The amount was unspecified.
At the same time, the Coast Guard is asking for $110 million for pay and benefits for its acquisition workforce, including support for training under the government-wide Acquisition Workforce Initiative, Papp said.
Overall, the president is requesting $10 billion for the Coast Guard in fiscal 2012, an increase of 1.8 percent.
“Through tough decisions and resource trade-offs, the Coast Guard’s fiscal 2012 budget request leverages savings generated through management efficiencies and offsets, and allocates funding toward higher-order needs to support front-line operations,” Papp said in his testimony.
The proposed budget includes $642 million for surface assets including the fifth National Security Cutter and $290 million for air assets.
It includes $166 million for other assets, including command and control systems, which includes all communications, computers and command and control systems; deployment of a prototype logistics information management system; Rescue 21 deployments at Lake Michigan, Puerto Rico, Guam, and Hawaii and replacement of equipment at Western Rivers; and information-sharing systems for three inter-agency operations centers.
Other budget items include $6 million for a distress-alerting satellite system and $9 million for network security.