Encourage More Procurement Innovation Background A Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) study of the contracting workforce found that the ability to innovate was needed but not being developed by supervisors.1 There is no effective organized means for promoting innovation among agencies, even though many federal agencies are doing business in different ways. For example, agencies are using new automation techniques and procuring goods and services using different methods. In addition, many state, local, and foreign governments and commercial enterprises are testing new contracting concepts. It is likely that the majority of federal government contracting professionals are not even aware of the innovations taking place in corporations and in governments like those of Australia and Texas. The federal government, however, benefits when contracting officials learn new ways of doing business and profit from the lessons learned by others. This knowledge also spurs agencies to improve cumbersome processes. At present, there are legal limits on procurement innovations since, to test a new idea, waivers of existing laws may be required. The Office of Personnel Management has authority under its statute to conduct demonstration programs and waive personnel laws on a test basis after notification to Congress.2 Similarly, the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) Act requires the Federal Acquisition Institute (FAI), located in the General Services Administration (GSA) but under the policy direction of OFPP, to promote and coordinate governmentwide research and studies to improve the procurement process and the laws, policies, methods, regulations, procedures, and forms relating to procurement by the executive agencies.3 However, FAI has insufficient resources to do so. Need for Change Currently, the procurement system's many control mechanisms discourage innovation. Good ideas are often squashed by any or all of these mechanisms or by the procurement culture itself. The procurement culture includes the system of policymakers and overseers who create and monitor the procurement system. Many of these individuals, not feeling the negative impact of the system of rigid rules, believe no changes are necessary. Thus, they create a climate and a correspondingly cumbersome process where requests for deviations from laws or rules are often viewed suspiciously. These requests are often viewed as attacks on an efficient system they value or simply as selfserving requests to cut corners and, thereby, sacrifice a noble objective of the system. Given the internal hurdles to overcome in terms of the layers of reviews and the usual reaction to requests to try something different, many line managers and contracting officers simply say, why bother? Furthermore, one of the larger barriers to the pursuit of new ideas is the burdensome process of going to Congress to get its approval for waiving applicable laws for pilot tests. Congress has given OFPP authority to request such waivers in P.L. 98191. However, because the request process is so difficult, it has not been possible to start meaningful pilot tests. An effective test program, which includes the authority to waive laws for purposes of tests, is essential to promote innovation in federal procurement. Pilot tests are a crucial means to experiment formally with new and innovative ways of doing business and to determine whether these new ideas have merit for expansion past the pilot stage. Further, the federal government needs a means to receive new ideas and communicate them quickly to line managers as acceptable procurement system alternatives. FAI can assist agencies in this testing and dissemination process. In the past, various federal programs have invested heavily in research that has had no practical application, let alone addressed the most pressing concerns of procurement executives, industry, or Congress. By contrast, the FAI has established various committees and working groups to successfully oversee and support FAI career development initiatives. However, the FAI needs an advisory committee to oversee and support its research programs as well. This committee would help the FAI: -- coordinate its work with other federal research activities, -- direct its research to the most pressing needs of the procurement community, -- identify products and services already developed by various contracting activities that could meet those needs if made available governmentwide, -- obtain access to agency facilities and work sites for the conduct of research, and -- identify and benefit from research being done in academia and the private sector. The lack of a governmentwide vehicle to gather and quickly disseminate successful innovations and new methodologies to contracting professionals hurts the government's ability to continually benefit from others' best practices. Cross References to Other NPR Accompanying Reports Streamlining Management Control, SMC08: Expand the Use of Waivers to Encourage Innovation. Endnotes 1. U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), "Workforce Quality and Federal ProcurementAn Assessment," July 1992, p. 52. 2. Title 5 U.S.C. 47. 3. See the Office of Federal Procurement Policy Act, 41 U.S.C. 405.
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