GAO Warns DoD to Improve Its Management and Oversight of Acquisition Staff

Several weeks ago, POGO blogged about Defense Secretary Robert Gates' announcement of major changes in the Department of Defense's (DoD) procurement priorities and practices, including increasing the size of the defense acquisition workforce, converting 11,000 contractor positions, and hiring an additional 9,000 government acquisition professionals by 2015. Although it is good to see the government lessen its dependence on contractors, POGO believes that merely adding more people will not magically fix the problems in the contracting system. There also has to be greater care in the use of risky contracting vehicles and better oversight of the acquisition workforce.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has recently been focused on the latter concept. On Tuesday, John K. Needham, the GAO's director of acquisition and sourcing issues, testified before the House Armed Services Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations on the importance of and need for greater management and oversight of the DoD's acquisition workforce. (A summary of Needham's testimony can also be found here.) It was the last in a series of hearings on defense procurement issues.

DoD spending on goods and services more than doubled to $388 billion from fiscal years 2001 to 2008. The number of weapon system programs has also grown. According to the GAO, the DoD lacks critical department-wide information on the use and skill sets of its acquisition workforce, which totals nearly 126,000 civilian and military employees.

In particular, it lacks information on the approximately 52,000 private contractor employees who support that workforce. The GAO surveyed 66 program offices and found that contractor personnel comprised more than a third (37 percent) of those offices' acquisition-related positions. In certain branches, however, the percentage is much higher. At the Missile Defense Agency, for example, contractor personnel comprise an astonishing 49 percent of the acquisition workforce. The GAO found that program office decisions to use contractor personnel are often driven by factors such as quicker hiring time frames and civilian staffing limits, rather than by more legitimate reasons such as the nature or criticality of the work and cost savings.

With such a large presence of contractors, insufficient oversight of the acquisition workforce not only hampers the DoD's ability to accomplish its missions, it also leaves it more vulnerable to fraud, waste, and abuse. Needham hammered this point home in his testimony:

"To the extent that the government does not have sufficient numbers or training in its acquisition workforce to properly oversee contractor personnel that are closely supporting inherently governmental functions, the greater the risk of contractor personnel inappropriately influencing the government's control over and accountability for decisions that may be based, in part, on contractor work."

-- Neil Gordon

Comments

[Wayland H Burton]

I am retired from the Defense Contract Management Agency and although a need for personnel is always desirable it should be tempered with good oversight. A flood of personnel not having knowledge of good oversight techniques will be disasterous. The problem becomes having knowledgeable personnel train and mentor new personnel. The solution would be to hire temporary employees so as not to have the cost of benefits but gain the experience. Primarily hire retirees but have them work at a reduced rate and maintain their retirement benefits. This would give you both knowledge and mentorship without the excess cost. DOD would then be able to reduce their ranks at an appropriate time without the worry of depleting their workforce of full time employees.