GovernmentExecutive.com

Agencies should recruit more acquisition workers, and give them better compensation and training, a key member of Congress said Thursday.

During a discussion hosted by the Association of Government Accountants, Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., said contracting experts provide one of the best returns on federal investments in hiring.

"You've got a lot of good [acquisition] people in government, but if you're not training them on an ongoing basis, you're losing out," Davis told the auditors. "I would pay them, I would bonus them."

Davis, who serves a Northern Virginia district heavy with government-oriented firms, said such a boost would help industry and would mitigate some of the "big contracting problems" stemming from management weaknesses.

But Davis was critical of several recent developments on Capitol Hill. If the Clean Contracting Act, crafted last session of Congress by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., were to become law, agency officials "would spend so much time making sure people can't steal anything, they [wouldn't be able] to do anything," Davis said.

He criticized efforts to restrict government use of purchase cards. These efforts reflect a misguided focus on the relatively small downside of abuse, rather than the large administrative savings the cards generate, he said.

Davis also said contracting set-asides, such as those for minority-owned and disadvantaged businesses, and cumbersome transparency requirements, prevent agencies from getting the best value for taxpayers.

Turning to broader federal management initiatives, Davis said "all bets are off" regarding progress on the President's Management Agenda. He predicted the administration would spend the next two years defending controversial elements of that agenda, such as personnel reform efforts at the Defense and Homeland Security departments.

Davis also predicted that the emphasis Waxman places on oversight as the new chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will push agency financial management to the back burner. Davis, now the committee's ranking member, acknowledged that Republicans did the same when they took control of Congress during the Clinton administration.

An initiative to improve the management of federal property is one area that has potential for progress during the current session, Davis said, citing Waxman's interest in the issue.

"There are a lot of things in this government that aren't conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat," Davis said. "We really make it harder on ourselves" by emphasizing partisan divisions.