DFAS does not do purchasing, says supply officer

From: campbell@ufomind.com (Glenn Campbell, Las Vegas)
Date: Sat, 11 Jan 1997 10:44:03 -0800
Subject: DFAS does not do purchasing, says supply officer

From: [Withheld by request]
Date: Fri, 10 Jan 1997 15:22:42 -0500
Subject: Re: DFAS Web site
To: campbell@ufomind.com

 I read the post from a contracted network engineer who stated that DFAS
 (Defense Finance and Accounting Service) does all the purchasing of
 government and military equipment and supplies. That is not correct. DFAS
 is the money disbursement and financial accounting arm of the Department
 of Defense. They do not do purchasing. They merely dole out money to the
 activities like the Air Force and the Air Force does the actual buying of
 equipment and supplies. The money spent is rectified by DFAS in their
 accounting activity. But the post made it seem like DFAS does the purchasing
 of supplies.

 I know that because I work at the U. S. Army XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
 Command in XXXXXXXXXXXXXX. I am an Inventory Manager for the XXXX  weapon
 system. My job is to determine proper stockage levels and initiate procurement
 actions. The actions are worked by our acquisition center who do the actual
 solicitation of bids, negotiation and awards of contracts for spare parts and
 vehicles. DFAS works with our Inventory Materiel Management Center, alloting
 our budget and keeping tabs on the dollars spent from that budget. But they
 have little insight to the actual parts bought or more importantly where they
 are going.

 You may post some of this message if you wish, I would however ask that you
 delete my name and duty location (never know who is watching or reading).
 I don't wish to say that nothing will be found at the DFAS website (because
 it might!) just that DFAS doesn't do the purchasing. I hazard a guess that
 the actual purchasing for the Air Force is done by the Air Force Supply
 activities in that area. Still DFAS might offer some more peeks behind the
 door of secrecy.