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Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Pentagon looking for a few good procurement officers

Pentagon procurement officer describes overhaul in contracting
the Pentagon's deputy assistant secretary for procurement, Edward M. Harringto, helps oversee how the Army spends more than $132 billion annually, buying a range of items and services: from complex computer software to run electronics programs, to setting dining tents for soldiers in deserts, to buying armored tanks, ammunition and weapons from contractors.

Its "Contractors on the Battlefield" chart outlines the number of contractors compared with the number of soldiers since the American Revolution. Back then, the ratio of contractors to soldiers was 1:6. World War I, 1:20. Vietnam, 1:6. Gulf War, 1:60. Iraq, 1:1. Afghanistan, 2:1.

The office estimates that as the workload has increased 1,000 percent since 1987, the government's contracting workforce has decreased by 25 percent.

Harrington said the biggest challenge we have is restoring the contracting workforce. Building both the numbers of the workforce back as well as advancing their skills. As the contracting dollars have gone up, the government's contracting workforce has gone down. That left us with a relatively minimal staff of senior contracting experts.

Contracting is a practice, a profession. It is similar to law or engineering, where you develop your expertise and skills over a number of years. . . . It takes time to get the training as well as to get the experience with all of the various contracting regulations. Those mid- and senior-level individuals are essential to coaching, counseling and mentoring our entry-level people coming onboard.

We do regular ethics training with our contracting workforce. We focus on procurement integrity and ensuring that we have no undue influence on the process or the people in the process. Are we absolutely perfect? No. It is a matter of daily oversight on our part.

We have a five-year plan to insource a lot of our contracting manpower. We'll add about 4,100 people to our acquisition workforce.

It will be from engineers, to testers, to cost analyzers, to quality assurance personnel -- many of whom are currently contractors.

There's tremendous opportunity to grow. We have a career path, and it is a good, steady job.

COMMENT: Building a quality procurement system is like building a quality hotel. You can have the best design, plans, specifications, tools, material and equipment, but without the skilled workforce all you have is a pile of rubble.

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