OFPP's small staff mirrors larger workforce issue
Everyone in or even remotely near the government acquisition community will quickly cite the size and skill (or lack thereof) of the acquisition workforce as a major factor contributing to problems in federal contracting. But one lawmaker has a different idea.
“We must also consider current staffing levels within in the [Office of Federal Procurement Policy] itself. In many ways, they mirror the problems of the overall acquisition workforce,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), an acquisition workforce advocate and ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
“OFPP has broad responsibilities and a staff of roughly a dozen, which appears to me to be simply inadequate. This lack of staffing may explain why OFPP has become increasingly reactive to procurement failures instead of working proactively to prevent them from occurring in the first place,” Collins said at the Nov. 10 confirmation hearing of Daniel Gordon, President Obama's pick for the OFPP administrator job.
OFPP staff is housed on the seventh floor of the New Executive Office Building, across the street from the White House. Beyond a cramped waiting area, a few staff offices are lined along a short hallway. And it isn't unusual to see lights on late at night as staffers work well past normal business hours.
Collins warned Gordon that she doesn’t want a huge, new bureaucracy at the procurement policy shop. But she wants to make sure the OFPP staff can handle the work it's been given.
Government procurement spending has increased in large steps in recent years. Between fiscal 2000 and 2008, spending expanded by 163 percent, from $205 billion to $539 billion. Meanwhile, contracts are becoming more complicated, especially as the systems and technology the government is buying more of are more complex than ever.
Furthermore, contracting has the spotlight. Its reformation has grabbed the attention of higher ranking officials than in the past, including Obama, who issued a reform memo in March. And he wants to see a lot of reforms done quickly.
Those things have tossed al lot of work to the OFPP staff, beyond what was already there.
“It’s an issue that, if I am confirmed, I welcome the opportunity to look into," Gordon told Collins. "I will tell you, I am committed to ensure that OFPP has adequate staff with the right skill set.”
Gordon needs the committee’s approval and the vote of approval by the full Senate in order to get his own office—across the street from the OFPP staff, in the large Old Executive Office Building, next door to the White House.
Posted by Matthew Weigelt on Nov 10, 2009 at 8:02 AM