Steven Kelman, administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, stepped down last week as the Clinton administration's all-star acquisition reformer.
President Clinton appointed Kelman to OFPP in 1993. The Harvard professor quickly laid out an agenda of bold changes to the often-byzantine federal procurement system. His accomplishments in the policy arena include implementing two significant procurement reform laws that streamlined acquisition processes. He also encouraged agencies to use the government's massive buying power to leverage good bargains, and pushed federal buyers to use credit cards for small purchases.
Kelman pushed agencies to replace government-unique procurement processes with business sector practices like oral proposals, past performance evaluations, performance-based service contracting and just-in-time delivery. He also championed commercial, off-the-shelf purchases rather than spec-laden procurements that stifled competition and inflated costs.
Speaking at a Council for Excellence in Government farewell luncheon Friday, Kelman said that special interests who benefit from inefficient practices are still a major impediment to procurement reform.
"Look at any bizarre management practice," Kelman said. "If you remove that rock, there's always a special interest under it, gaining from it."
Another challenge Kelman said he faced was changing the mindset of federal procurement professionals who have become averse to change. "At some point we have to decide--are we proud professionals, or are we always going to be cowering and sycophantic?" Kelman said.
Council President Patricia McGinnis praised Kelman for making procurement "a playground for innovation." She commended him for listening to ideas from frontline procurement professionals and then pushing their ideas across government.
Kelman said the energy of the people throughout the procurement system made reform possible. He held town meetings and forums to gather ideas for acquisition reform. He added, however, that without support from the top of the administration, reform would not have begun.
"I don't think it would have been even vaguely possible without the support of the Vice President," Kelman said. Kelman said his successor will have to help push the policy of procurement reform down through the ranks of the federal establishment.
Kelman's departure marks the end of a summer dotted with the resignations of government reformers in key political positions throughout the administration. In June, Elaine Kamarck, the Vice President's senior policy adviser on reinventing government, left Washington to take a position at Harvard. John Koskinen, deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, left government the following month. Koskinen had championed information technology and management reform. And at the beginning of September, Office of Personnel Management Director James King bowed out after overseeing the downsizing and restructuring of the government's central human resources agency.
Alan Brown, associate administrator for procurement innovation at OFPP, will serve as acting administrator until a replacement for Kelman is selected.
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