• Kim Gillis speaking prior to the Long Ride 2017 fundraiser.
Defence
    Kim Gillis speaking prior to the Long Ride 2017 fundraiser. Defence
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Normally affable but discreet, CASG head Kim Gillis used his valedictory remarks at the recent Defence and Industry conference to deliver some home truths, both positive and otherwise, as he heads towards retirement.

Retiring in September after three challenging years as the Deputy Secretary in charge of Defence’s acquisition and sustainment arm, Gillis referred to a 38-year career divided into 20 years in public administration, five years in shipbuilding, five years in public administration, five years in aerospace, and the last three years in public administration again.

The amount of work CASG had dealt with during his tenure was “nothing less than phenomenal,” with some members of the contract and procurement team not taking leave for two years.

“Now that’s not good management, but it’s the reality of the work we’ve gone through so I think we’re tired,” Gillis said.

“I think we’re ready to take on the next challenge but it’s tough, this has been the biggest reform of probably any public administration organisation that people have seen. It’s the largest single hit with new acquisitions and we’re reforming our sustainment approach.

“We’re doing that with less people, we’re doing that more effectively, we’re doing that more accountably, and we’re better than the primes in the way we contract.”

The latter remark related to Lee Stanley of Daronmont Technologies telling the conference that some primes were now harder to deal with contractually than CASG – a judgement welcomed by Gillis, who noted “it’s taken 20-something years to get to the point where they’re more painful than we are.”

Gillis disclosed one retirement ambition was to build a treehouse “without any contractors.” Nevertheless, he praised the relationship with both primes and SMEs as “absolutely fantastic” and emphasised his pride in the re-engagement of trust in capability managers by both government and the acquisition community.

Less positive was the speed of reforms – “they should have been quicker and more comprehensive.”

Gillis also noted that the enforcement of Australian Industry Content (AIC) should have been stronger – “I’ve seen some very poor behaviour by people who were putting in AIC plans to actually claim shopfronts. When somebody says that something is an Australian Industry Capability and is going to be built in Australia, that doesn’t mean you import it, run it through a shopfront and sell it to us. Those are the old days, there is no value to it.

“We’re not ever going to do that again. We’re going to become more diligent. Don’t make claims and expect that we’re not following up.”

State governments complaining about national politics was another bugbear, given that in his lengthy experience he had never been in a situation where any federal government had been prepared to compromise Australia’s warfighters and the national interest for state-based political gain.

“Yes, you can talk about decisions to put things in particular states, but that is pre-competition,” he said.

Gillis also scoffed at full page advertorials in the national press taken by some primes in the past 12 to 18 months prior to acquisition decisions.

“In the senior leadership inside the acquisition community, we just laughed. We said if you think that’s going to change the way we run our acquisition, you’re foolish.

“It does only two things. It adds to the coffers of the media community out there, and it may give in some perverted way some national awareness, but we’ve got to do it better because those things were a multi-hundred-thousand-dollar campaign and the Commonwealth ultimately will pay for it.”

Describing his greatest dislike, Gillis referred to what he described as a small number of companies that had “absolutely lied outright to us. They’re poorly behaved and if you think that’s going to work, it’s a disaster, your reputation is trashed.

“I know that my senior leaders have had instances where companies have tried to go around us and where companies have tried to go to the Minister and make representations which are fundamentally untrue.

“You might get away with it once but if you do that to your customer and you’ve been deceitful, you’re foolish.”

The future for Gillis? Apart from the treehouse (a real one), he’ll be travelling to Vietnam, Ireland, NZ, and Canada, and enjoying the company of his five grandchildren.

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