How can we fix the contracting mess that leads to mistakes and wasteful spending across the government?  By training more people to work in government as contracting specialists.   In the category of obvious and urgent reforms, this one’s at the front of the file, and the U.S. Army seems ready to act.

Stephen Barr of the Washington Post focuses here on an Army-commissioned report, written by former undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics Dr. Jacques Gansler, which points out four key areas in contracting that must be addressed:  making contracting a better career path; restructuring the basic machinery of contracting; improving training of contracting officials, particularly those supporting combat or other overseas efforts; and the catch-all "obtaining legislative, regulatory, and policy assistance to enable contracting effectiveness…."

The number of contracting officers in the armed services has been cut significantly in recent years, just as the demand for contracting services has increased.  We have written earlier about the extent of this problem in the Coast Guard, the State Department, and the Department of Defense.  Contracting as a practice isn’t going away, and it has existed for as long as government — the government can’t produce everything it needs, so it pays private companies for goods and services, usually on a long-term contractual basis. 

When the government hires private companies to do much-needed work such as feeding and clothing soldiers, building patrol boats (or jets or armored vehicles), or protecting government officials, it needs qualified government employees to monitor the work of these private companies, to make sure we are getting the best results for the least money.  When you reduce the number of people trained to monitor these private companies, the companies are left unsupervised, and the negative results range from apparently errant shooting deaths by Blackwater in Iraq to presidential helicopters that can’t get off the ground. 

The Gansler report (available here) doesn’t shy away from the accusations of incompetence and malfeasance that have obviously occurred in recent months; in fact it the problems spurred the Army to commission the report.  The Army’s own press release notes that of the 83 investigations being conducted right now,  "most involve bribery."  The future depends on making contracting officials in the Army, and other parts of government, better at their jobs and making those jobs more attractive for young people.  Along with knowing they are making a difference, people need to know that  procurement is a good career path.  Funding, training, and greater awareness of this problem on the part of legislators and the public could save us lives, money, and prestige in the years to come.

Comment RSS - Trackback URI