LONDON — The British government expects to award a contract to industry this summer to teach the military how to switch from fighting wars to understanding spread sheets.

Known as the Acquisition Support Partner (ASP) program, the deal could be worth up to £30 million (US $47 million) for the successful company, as the Ministry of Defence rolls out a plan aimed at improving the business skills of military and civil personnel newly tasked with controlling the individual budgets of Britain's four frontline commands.

"This is about embedding and sustaining the recent changes to the frontline commands which enable them to act as a stronger customer in deciding what equipment and support they wish to acquire and holding the Defence Equipment & Support [DE&S] to account to acquire it," an MoD spokesman said.

Project, program and performance management are among the skills the armed services are trying to acquire. Leaders hope that workers at the end of an expertise-building effort, which could run for up to three years, will be match-fit and able to fend for themselves.

The plan is not mandatory at the moment, though, an industry executive familiar with the bidding process said.

The Army, Air Force, Navy and Joint Forces Command can decide to opt out if they want to adopt another solution, the executive said.

As things stand, the Royal Navy and Joint Forces Command look like they are in, the British Army is still considering it and the Royal Air Force is the least likely to take part in the plan, he said.

Selection of an ASP mirrors what has been happening at DE&S, which last year appointed Bechtel and CH2M Hill to help raise the expertise of officials charged with negotiating defense deals sometimes worth billions of pounds with industry.

Consultant Alex Ashbourne-Walmsley, of London-based Ashbourne Strategic Consulting, said she expects to see further defense skills-building deals in the future.

"It's a cost-effective way to keep teams together and deliver capability gains without having to resort to the alternative of outsourcing defense capabilities to industry," she said. "We will likely see more of it as it coincides with what is happening across the wider public sector in the UK."

A number of companies submitted ASP proposals to the Crown Commercial Service in April and industry executives said they had been told to expect a decision as early as June, although the MoD is publicly being more cautious, saying the intention is to award a contract sometime in the summer.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence declined to say how many bids it had received, but executives here reckoned organizations such as Atkins, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG, PA Consulting and CH2M Hill were among those likely to have lodged proposals.

Some of these companies likely will be bidding as part of a consortia. An example: One business executive said CH2M Hill and Deloitte are said to be partnering.

The two US contractors conducting the main upskilling effort at DE&S have not been excluded from the bidding.

A second industry executive said, though, that Bechtel had not bid, citing concerns over possible conflict of interest as the reason.

"You shouldn't be able to play both sides of the fence. Upskilling the customer as well as being on the DE&S side is rather curious," the executive said.

CH2M Hill declined to comment on whether it had submitted a bid for ASP.

Traditionally, the military budgets have of the British army, navy, air force and joint forces command had been controlled by MoD central, but as part of a wholesale shake-up of the structure of the department announced in 2011, the responsibility for spending has devolved to frontline commands.

Now the service chiefs are accountable for planned and in-service equipment and support as well as setting the detailed requirements for equipment. In effect, they are the customer for DE&S.

In a speech early this year, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said the switch of budget responsibility to the commands meant the "service chiefs had effectively become chief executives of multibillion-pound organizations."

The plan got underway in 2013 using newly recruited civil servants and military officers posted to organizations being created by the individual commands.

Industry executives here say the results have been patchy, with staff, particularly the military, lacking the necessary skills to act as an intelligent customer.

"They are trying hard to take hold of the responsibility of budget control, it's exactly where they want to be, but this is not an easy thing to do and they recognize they are short of numbers and short of capability to do the job at the moment," said the first executive.

Email: achuter@defensenews.com

Andrew Chuter is the United Kingdom correspondent for Defense News.

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