GovernmentExecutive.com

Most chief acquisition officers need a permanent "help wanted" sign to hang outside their offices.

The workforce in charge of buying goods and services is shrinking, while spending continues to climb.

According to the Federal Acquisition Institute at Fort Belvoir, Va., a training center for federal employees, 12 percent of contracting specialists were eligible to retire in 2004.

That number will jump to 30 percent in 2009. Outside consultants and industry groups often attribute problems with subcontracting and set-aside programs to a lack of oversight caused by personnel shortages.

But acquisition leaders aren't rolling over and waiting for people to turn in their departure forms - they're recruiting. "We're evaluating and ensuring we have proper retention strategies, and we're developing proper profiles in terms of incoming employees to best predict their potential for success," says Michael Harrison, assistant secretary for administration at the Agriculture Department.

Among the strategies: The Treasury Department is setting up a team to examine its acquisition workforce, Agriculture is surveying employees to help shape its recruitment and retention plan, and the Veterans Affairs Department is considering starting an acquisition-focused intern program, while the Interior Department offers loan repayment in some bureaus as an incentive.

Chief acquisition officers also are trying to make the jobs more exciting. Emily W. Murphy, chief acquisition officer at the General Services Administration, says one way to do that is to make it easier for employees to move among agencies. "We want to make sure the workforce has horizontal and vertical movement, so skilled people can progress in their careers," she says. She is working to make the certification process at the Defense Department and civilian agencies more similar so employees can move easily between the Pentagon and other agencies.

In March, the Office of Management and Budget announced that the Federal Acquisition Institute would move to Fort Belvoir to share space with the Defense Acquisition University, which primarily trains Defense acquisition employees. Officials says the two schools already have started benefiting from sharing classes.

COMMENTS

• I'll tell you what the real joke is. It is hiring ex-military officers into very high level acquisition positions when they didn't have "hands-on" from day one. Then they try to "measure contracting employee's productivity", which is more illusive than the Easter Bunny, and issue totally irrational SOPs that don't make even COMMON sense, much less any sense at all. Thanks a lot, Congress. You just let the incompetent officers who couldn't make 0-6 into the contracting series, and now it is in the worst shape it has ever been in. Don't believe me? Try telling a very high level "contracting" manager that you cannot do something because it violates the FAR. You won't last 5 minutes and they will find some other very "highly educated" simpleton who will do whatever management wants. Come on, Auditors. Go into ANY contracting office and clean house. In fact, send in your least experienced auditors, they will have a field day with the stuff they can find. Joseph Arnaud Posted June 19, 2007 6:48 PM
• To the analyst who can't get into the procurement world in government. That's because you have no real experience. The reason you're successful using your "procurement skills" is because the focus of your IG job is to look at files and document what's wrong. That's easy; I can look at my own files and sometimes find things I'd have done differently if "I'd known then what I know now." You don't have that luxury when you're actually doing the job. You need to get a clue. GovExec.com reader Posted October 17, 2005 6:59 PM
• To the analyst who doesn't know why they can't get into contracting, let me just say that since the early 90's, DAWIA (the Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act) requires contracting professionals to have certain credentials which include both training and hands-on experience. It's the law; it's not just an idea. This law was enacted to professional the Acquisition Career Program. Unfortunately, you will have to go back to the basics, i.e. be willing to take a lower grade in order to get in on the ground floor and learn the hands-on contracting, beginning with simple instruments and working your way up the ladder to more complex contracts and consequently higher grades. Don't make the mistake of thinking that because you can analyze or audit what someone else has done, you are qualified to do their job. Unless you've been there, you really have no idea what it takes to plan for, execute, and administer a contract. You can't do it simply because you've looked at files. Sorry, but that's a big issue; you must complete all the steps to be effective, i.e. qualified. My advice before you take the plunge is to carefully evaluate whether you want to go that route. Mostly every person with a requirement wants it yesterday and hasn't got a clue what "it" is; you'll constantly be second guessed by the Monday morning quarterbacks both in Congress and in your own agencies audit groups; and you are going to be busier than ever before in you life with no end in sight. At the end of the day, it's a pretty neat job because you know you've done what you could to support the warfighter. Just a word to the wise! GovExec.com reader Posted October 15, 2005 11:27 PM