All Contracted Out

The federal acquisition workforce is weary from turmoil.

The past two decades have been a roller coaster ride for the federal acquisition workforce. Government purchasing-largely seen as a clerical, low-grade function for much of the 20th century-has become a high-profile profession.

In 1988, only 52 percent of federal procurement workers had college degrees and roughly a quarter fell into clerical and assistance positions. Since then, buyers have become much more professionalized. Eight in 10 people hired in the contracting job category in fiscal 2007 had college degrees compared with five in 10 a decade ago. The number of workers in the procurement clerical and assistance category has plummeted from 10,000 in 1988 to less than 2,000 in 2007.

As acquisition professionals became better educated and were placed in job categories requiring more advanced training, the size of the workforce fluctuated. The overall downsizing of the federal government in the 1990s was accompanied by a drop from 67,000 contracting workers in 1992 to 56,000 in 2001. The group has rebounded to about 61,000, according to Federal Acquisition Institute estimates. But the workload confronting that workforce has grown even more.

Indeed, the dollar value of federal contracts nearly doubled between 2001 and 2007, rising from $220 billion to $436 billion. On average, the General Services Administration's Federal Procurement Data System records 9.8 million contracting actions a year. More and more contracts have shifted from simple product purchases to complex service contracts.

This growth has raised the political stakes. Congress is turning a more critical eye on the contracting workforce. High-publicity contracting problems, including the recent decennial census technology meltdown and the Air Force's flawed tanker award, have only heightened the pressure on acquisition professionals. In addition, inspectors general and auditing agencies have pushed for more scrutiny of contracting actions-while themselves becoming the object of more scrutiny on Capitol Hill. The latest example is the recent Government Accountability Office report calling into question the veracity of the work at the Defense Contract Audit Agency, a 2,200-person organization that looks over the shoulders of contracting professionals in the military establishment.

It's no wonder then that many in the federal acquisition workforce are feeling overworked, undertrained and beaten down.

The rhythm of government activity follows a pattern of crisis, reaction, reflection and adjustment. The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan created a crisis-punctuated by another, Hurricane Katrina. Immediate and concurrent re-action continued until this year, when the war in Iraq finally began to stabilize. Now-assuming a new crisis does not arise-a period of reflection can begin.

The world has changed, and so has the acquisition workforce. Has the latter changed enough and in the right ways to deal with the former?

One key change in the world is a dramatic shift into the network era-where information can flow from anyone to anyone. The acquisition community has yet to take full advantage of that shift; it still holds a great deal of information in secret or inaccessible places, hindering the ability of contract professionals to learn from one another about getting good deals. That's just one of the matters for procurement managers to consider-and adjust to-before the next crisis arrives at government's gates.

Brian Friel is a National Journal staff correspondent and covered management and human resources at Government Executive for six years.