DoD procurement chief Dick Ginman planning to retire

Pentagon's most senior contract policy official is set to retire soon, but schedule is uncertain.

Richard Ginman, the Defense Department’s top procurement policy official, soon will retire from the job after a nearly 40-year career, some of it in the commercial sector, but mostly in government, both in and out of uniform.

Ginman, a retired Navy admiral who has served as DoD’s director for procurement and acquisition policy (DPAP) for the past three years, has been rumored to be leaving the position. But the first official confirmation came in a somewhat roundabout fashion on Tuesday.

Dick Ginman, DoD’s director for procurement and acquisition policy.
In a memorandum signed out by Shay Assad, DoD’s director for defense pricing and Ginman’s immediate predecessor before the office was split into two directorates, the Pentagon created a new award program: the Richard Ginman Contingency Contracting Excellence Award.

The memo requests nominations for any DoD contingency contracting officers, either military or civilian, who have performed “inspirational” service in contingency contracting over the past year.

It notes that the award is in honor of “former” DPAP Director Ginman, though the language appears to be prospective. Ginman is still on the job, the Pentagon assured Federal News Radio Tuesday.

Nominations for the new Ginman award are due by Aug. 25. The award will be given to only one contracting officer each year.

For the first go-round, Ginman will present the award on the day of his retirement ceremony. The memo does not specify a date for that event, and a Pentagon spokeswoman was not immediately able to shed any further light on Ginman’s precise retirement schedule.

Ginman became DoD’s director for defense procurement and acquisition policy in 2011, when DoD decided to bifurcate the office into two divisions, putting Ginman in charge of policy and Assad in charge of defense pricing.

Just before that, Ginman was DoD’s deputy director for contingency and acquisition policy after having served in several high-level civilian acquisition leadership roles within the Navy, the service he had previously retired from as a rear admiral in 2000.

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