Build an Innovative Procurement Workforce Background No matter how good a policy may be on paper, it will not be effective without wellmotivated, competent people to implement it. Finding, training, and retaining these people will allow the federal government to move the procurement culture from one of doggedly following rules and procedures to one that encourages the use of more discretion through guiding principles. By law, the Administrator, Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP), can foster and promote professionalism of the governmentwide procurement workforce through the Federal Acquisition Institute located in the General Services Administration (GSA).1 The core procurement workforce of general business, purchasing, and contracting personnel has increased by 25,000 since 1980, from 42,000 in that year to 67,000 in 1992. While the procurement workforce has grown, average governmentwide productivity has declined. Contract expenditures per contract specialist were $9.4 million in 1980 (in 1992 dollars), but only $6.3 million in 1992. This is only an approximate measure of performance. However, it is indicative of an increasingly complex procurement process. The core procurement workforce is only a small proportion of the total of 142,000 that also includes people working in supply depots and other logistics functions. The total procurement workforce exceeds 6 percent of the total federal workforce!2 It is important to consider both the quantity and quality of the procurement workforce. Following are highlights from more than a decade of data on federal contract specialists.3 -- Roughly twothirds of all hires for the contracting profession have come from internal placement or promotion of personnel from clerical, technical, and other such fields. By comparison, few have been recruited from sources external to the government (e.g., recent college graduates). -- Throughout the 1980's, 10 percent of the contract specialists on average left the profession every year. In the 1990's, however, turnover slowed to a loss rate of just 7 percent. -- Because of the relatively high past turnover of 10 percent and the large net growth in the profession, a number of contract specialists are relatively inexperienced. As of September 1992, 47 percent of the contracting workforce had less than seven years of experience in their jobs. -- Only 53 percent of the contract specialists have graduated from a college or university with a bachelor's or postgraduate degree. Sixty percent of these college graduates majored in business, law, or public administration. Given this data, the longterm challenge facing procurement executives is to take the large number of relatively inexperienced personnel and equip them with the professional skills and knowledge necessary to act competently as agents for the government in their contractual dealings with the private sector. Need for Change Improving the procurement process requires improving the workforce. One of the consequences of a procurement system dominated by rigid rules versus guidelines is that most procurement people are experts in contractingthat is, processinstead of buying, which connotes market and product expertise. The change in overall policy from rigid rules to guidelinesfrom centralized to decentralized authoritywill require a major shift in the procurement skills mix. A better trained, more capable workforce will give improved support to line managers. Steps must therefore be taken to authorize a comprehensive, governmentwide program of procurement workforce improvement to identify, develop, and retain highquality personnel. This program is needed to meet the staffing requirements in procurement organizations, encourage employees who desire a procurement career to develop their decisionmaking and customer service skills and abilities, and stimulate employees to engage in selfdevelopment activities. The performance of the procurement workforce continues to be questioned. A recent Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) report concludes that while the quality of the workforce is generally good, it is not keeping pace with the demands placed upon it by an increasingly complex procurement process. The report notes that supervisors believe employees need to innovate more. Finally, the MSPB report recommends that procurement officials receive additional training to ensure that they are fully competent.4 The Secretary of Defense was recently given authority by Congress to specially manage the defense acquisition workforce.5 Included in this legislation were specific criteria for ensuring a standard of education and experience for people entering the contracting field as well as other acquisition occupations. Highly qualified procurement personnel are needed in civilian agencies, as well as in defense agencies. In the words of a General Accounting Office study of contract administration in civilian agencies, "The contracting deficiencies that we identified generally resulted from people failing to properly carry out their responsibilities, rather than from a need for additional rules and regulations governing what should be done when writing or administering contracts."6 Endnotes 1. See Office of Federal Procurement Policy Act (41 U.S.C. 405). 2. Data based on Fiscal Year 1992 provided by Office of Management and Budget, Office of Federal Procurement Policy. The 142,000 figure excludes 20,000 supervisors. 3. General Services Administration, Federal Acquisition Institute, Federal Acquisition Workforce Fiscal Year 1991 (Washington, D.C., September 1992). 4. U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, "Workforce Quality and Federal ProcurementAn Assessment," July 1992. 5. Title XII of Public Law 101510, Defense Authorization Act, added a new Chapter 87 on Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement to Title 10 U.S.C. to establish policies and procedures for the effective and uniform management of the workforce in the Department of Defense. 6. U.S. General Accounting Office, Civilian Agency Procurement: Improvements Needed in Contract Administration, GGD89109 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. General Accounting Office, September 1989), pp. 3334.
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