Homeland Security officials work toward plan on tech purchases

The Homeland Security Department is beginning to develop a strategy for more efficiently purchasing technologies, according to officials.

"We're doing what any company would do in a merger," chief procurement officer Greg Rothwell said recently at a Minority Business Roundtable forum, describing his office's plan to assess how the 22 different agencies recently merged into the department buy products and services in order to adopt "best practices" across the department for certain commodities.

Lee Kair, who is responsible for acquisition systems and strategic sourcing, said officials are in the initial stages of drafting the strategy. They are contacting various agencies, including the Coast Guard, the Transportation Security Administration, the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, and Secret Service. The next step will be to approach industry for feedback through the FedBizzOpps.gov Web site, he said.

Officials are organizing the strategy by creating commodity councils with representatives from across the department to determine how each agency purchases certain commodities, Kair said. The councils then will recommend the most efficient process for the department to follow when procuring each commodity.

Kair described the strategy as "acquisition sensitive," declining to discuss the number or type of commodity councils. He also said the strategy would be revealed soon but refused to set a date.

Developing procurement strategy is not uncommon for federal agencies. Kair said Homeland Security is learning from the Defense Department, which is "furthest along at doing this." He said officials are using a June 2003 General Accounting Office audit of Defense's strategy as background, as well as reviewing the Air Force's strategic sourcing policy for its transformation.

Until Homeland Security finishes its approach, Kair said industry should retain its business relationships with the individual agencies.

Homeland Security estimated in fiscal 2002 that before joining the department, the different agencies spent a total of $10.3 billion on contracts. The Transportation Security Administration spent the most at $4.5 billion, followed by the Coast Guard at $1.4 billion and the former immigration office at $1.7 billion.