Include before and after pictures in procurement photo album

Unfortunately, news headlines, and political knee jerk responses to them, too often frame the perspective of the job of procurement. The blinkered view of procurement (see, e.g., this post) only sees the combative arena of solicitation and award.

There is much more procurement work, more critical work in many ways, that comes before and after the solicitation. The public may not know that, but the procurement managers do, as the following article illustrates.

Acquisition workforce, contract management top CAO priorities

Improving contract management and workforce development and training are the most important areas federal chief acquisition officers and senior procurement executives are focusing on in 2012.

An anonymous email survey of CAOs and SPEs by Federal News Radio found 85 percent of the respondents said they believe a better trained workforce is the best tool to reduce contracts spending and save money.

Many of the priorities survey respondents highlighted closely follow those outlined by the Office of Federal Procurement Policy over the last three years.

Dan Gordon, who just retired from OFPP Dec. 31 and now is associate dean of the George Washington University law school in Washington, said, "we didn't focus enough on what comes before and what comes after [figuring out "who should get the contract]."

The article is full of interesting, and sometimes surprising or provoking, comments elicited by the survey. You would find it an interesting read.