Pentagon Contracting Reforms May Be 'Too Little, Too Late'

Yesterday, Steven Schooner, an associate professor and co-director of the Government Procurement Law Program at the George Washington University Law School, testified before the House Armed Services Committee's Defense Acquisition Reform Panel Subcommittee that the Department of Defense's (DoD) plan to add 20,000 contracting staff over the next five years is “too little, too late.” He concluded that the DoD's plan “is not only too slow, but aspires to too little.”

In April, Defense Secretary Robert Gates took what seemed to be a significant step when he announced that the 11,000 DoD acquisition support positions currently performed by private contractors would be converted into government positions, and that an additional 9,000 acquisition officials would be hired by 2015. Schooner, however, warned the Panel that the Pentagon's goal will not keep pace with the dramatic growth of defense contracting. The proposed additions would increase the size of the contracting workforce by 16 percent--restoring it to the size it was back in 1998, in fact--while DoD contracting spending continues to grow at an astounding rate. In addition, nearly 50 percent of the acquisition workforce will be eligible for retirement over the next five years.

Due to this grim state of affairs, Schooner believes DoD has no choice but to continue to rely heavily on the approximately 52,000 private contractors who support the acquisition workforce. He even argues that this reliance should be increased for the foreseeable future, even though a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) study found significant problems with DoD’s oversight and management of its contractor support staff.

We hope the Pentagon's efforts to hire more in-house contracting staff obviates the need to increase its reliance on the private sector. Otherwise, we hope it follows Professor Schooner’s other advice about strengthening the acquisition workforce through improved recruitment and retention practices. As for the GAO's findings, the Pentagon asserts it is taking steps to beef up its oversight and management of that workforce.

-- Neil Gordon