POGO and others have been busy blogging and commenting on Secretary Gates’ announcement regarding the Department of Defense’s 2010 budget request (check out POGO founder Dina Rasor’s piece in the Huffington Post for some excellent background on defense procurement issues).
Although most of the attention has focused on his recommended cuts to various defense programs, Secretary Gates also announced major changes in the DoD’s procurement priorities and practices, including a significant reduction in the number of contractors.
Gates recommended reducing the number of support service contractors (from the current level of 39 percent of the workforce to the pre-2001 level of 26 percent) and replacing them with up to 30,000 new full-time government employees over the next five years.
He also recommended increasing the size of the defense acquisition workforce, converting 11,000 contractors and hiring an additional 9,000 government acquisition professionals by 2015.
POGO has long been concerned about the government’s growing reliance on contractors, especially in the critical areas of defense and homeland security, so Secretary Gates’ recommendation to replace contractors with government employees is encouraging. When it comes to shoring up the government’s acquisition workforce, however, quality is more important than quantity.
Merely hiring more contracting officials would not necessarily fix the problems that plague the system, especially if the DoD continues to rely on risky contracting vehicles that have been in vogue since the 1990s, such as performance-based contracts, time and material contracts, and commercial item purchases.
Sure, the extra workforce might speed the flow of taxpayer dollars to contractors, but it won’t necessarily lead to improved contracting decisions, better oversight of contractors and less overall waste, fraud and abuse.
