As a result of confusion over the role of CoMs, the following text was issued as guidance by the DE&S Chief Operating Officer in August 2008:166
Firstly I will set out the role that CoMs fulfil with respect to cluster/IPT business and how I see the COO-CoM interaction working. I have deliberately kept the discussion at the 3* role level for clarity; it goes without saying that the teams are the means by which we achieve everything we deliver under the direction of the cluster DG.
Overall the role of the CoMs is to provide the strategic bridge across the unified MoD customer to ensure that the right focus is being applied at all times to delivering what the FLC requires both in the short-term and long-term. My job as COO is to ensure that user defined requirements (procurement or support) are being delivered within the agreed funding and against the agreed timeline. As such I see it as a legitimate role of the CoMs to provide me (and therefore you) with challenge from a customer perspective, and to provide us with a strategic conduit for communication of constraints, options, solutions etc to the highest levels within the MoD unified customer organisation. This supplements, rather than cutting across, my relationship with DCDS(EC).
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166 'The Roles of the Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Chiefs of Materiel (CoMs)', COO (August 2008)