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The Office of Management and Budget has instituted new competency and training requirements for contracting officer technical representatives, those acquisition employees who assist with contract administration and support acquisition management.

OMB's Office of Federal Procurement Policy recently issued a memorandum to chief acquisition officers delineating the requirements, which are mandatory for all civilian agencies and include a minimum of 40 hours of training. The memo recommends courses such as Market Research and Ethics Training for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics. The goal, according to the memo, is to ensure that all contracting officer technical representatives possess certain competencies.

The memo lists 24 key skills, ranging from acquisition-specific ones such as defining and communicating government requirements to broader traits like flexibility and integrity. The required COTR training is available through the Federal Acquisition Institute or the Defense Acquisition University, but the memo also says it can be completed through agency or commercially run courses or universities.

"The COTR is the contracting officer's right-hand resource for ensuring that contractors are meeting contract requirements in support of our mission objectives," OFPP Administrator Paul A. Denett said. "The COTR is an essential part of the acquisition team and must be sufficiently trained."

Under the new regulations, COTRs also will be required to undergo periodic skills training. In order to keep their certification up to date, the employees will have to earn 40 "continuous learning points" every two years through training programs.

All COTRs named to a contract must be certified within six months of their appointment. Employees with active contracts must be certified within a year, but can count any previous training toward the requirements if that training meets the new goals.

The certification requirements come in response to recommendations by the Federal Acquisition Institute and the Merit Systems Protection Board in reports on the skills necessary for technical contracting experts to properly perform. This is the third acquisition certification program OFPP has developed; the first two programs established training requirements for contracting officers and program and project managers.

COMMENTS

• I find Mr. Denett's comments both insulting and demeaning. His insinuation is that the Contracting Officials are somehow inherently more ethical than the COTRs. His idea that a COTR is the "right hand of the Contracting Official" is laughable. In the two Departments that I have worked in, the Engineers were assigned "collateral" duties as COTR's to get the job they designed constructed, because the Contracting Official wouldn't have a clue as to the requirements. In fact Engineers would rather "be in hell with their backs broke" as to be considered a contracting individual. We are trained both technically, professionally and ethically from the start of our careers in college. Which by the way is more that 5 years for many. Most Contracting Officials I have worked with have little technical education to fall back on, they're are very good with regulations, but regulations won't keep you dry in a rainstorm. Both of the states I am registered to practice in believe that I have the ethics and technical background to design public facilities. Why should he have the right to question my ethics. Years ago Officers in the Department of Defense were the Contracting Officers on their projects and they were good enough to facilitate our winning of several wars and numerous conflicts. A multitude of public works projects were completed under this same arrangement. Now we have a few zealouts utilizing the failures of an even fewer individuals that have crossed the ethical lines to feather their own nests by forcing many of us to undergo even further training which is hard enough to come by along with our required 30 hours of engineering training. The agency can't afford the luxury of supporting two of my careers. It appears that Mr. Denett has the plague that seems to be going around and that is the tail seems to be wagging the dog. Respectfully submitted. Steven Ray Posted December 20, 2007 5:25 PM
• In an area where the COTR's are NOT acquisition personnel but actual Subject matter experts, I find it hard to have to take additional training to satisfy acquistion requirements. I give my AQ office the requirement of what I need and then have to act as the COTR because they don't know how the system the contracted for works. If the acquisition personnel were actually knowledgeable in the technical areas that they were contracting for, it would save the government more money and make the acquistion process much leaner and more reliable. John J Posted December 5, 2007 2:02 PM
• The issue is not training COR's/COTRS the issue is accountability. There is enough training already required for acquisition personnel. After 40 years working with the Government what I see are trained personnel without the work and moral ethics that are required for the positions they were hired for. If civil service had an easier process to penalize non-performance and unethical employees no additional training would be required John Willis Posted December 3, 2007 3:43 PM