How do I handle a Program Officer who simply will not execute an awarded contract? I have been awarded a US DoD contract, which is stuck on the desk of the Program Officer. I have spoken to this individual, and indeed had positive conversations. However, for the last 15 (!) months this contract has remained unfunded. This individual's support personnel have joined me in rallying them to get it done. They have also advised me that the funds are available, sitting in an account, ready to be dispersed to my laboratory. This has not happened.

Individuals in my laboratory who were to be involved in this research have moved on, and indeed my lab is moving in new directions. It is a large enough award, however, on a topic that I value enough to continue attempting to find movement forward. Further, the award was reported in my tenure argument, which is due in the near future. I would prefer not to have a caveat in that regard.

How can I better handle the situation?
In your question, I am struck by the lack of information about why funds are not moving, for which there may be many reasons.

In many cases, program officers are not actually able to execute a contract themselves, but need to depend on another set of contracting personnel, sometimes in an entirely different agency.  For example, Agency 1 may award and obligate the funds, but Agency 2 actually manages and disburses the funds (this may sound crazy, but there are actually good reasons it is handled in this way).  

In other cases, there may be an internal block of some sort, often having to do with the interaction of external politics with laws.  For example, acting leadership whose appointment has not been officially approved by Congress often has less authority than approved leadership, and our current presidency has resulted in many agencies being without approved leadership.  Funds may also be approved, but then the money might be diverted elsewhere by forces above the ability of a program officer to control.

You may also be running into a problem where they wish to award the funds but there is a regulatory issue or contracting slowdown regarding your own institution that is blocking it, and they assume that you are aware of it when you are not. For example, I know of a case where an award was held up for a long time because it was going to an institution which did not support ROTC in the way the specific awarding agency was required to by a "side clause" in regulation.

You need to get on the phone with the program officer to have a frank conversation about the state of your finances and find out exactly why and where the blockage is. Then you can find out exactly who you need to be interacting with (or asking contracting personnel to interact with) in order to unstick your project.

Finally, while 15 months seems long, it is not at all unusual in the case of certain agencies, so unless you know more, you don't even know whether it's an issue for concern or not.