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Washington Pulse
Acquisition Workers: No More Reforms!
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By Sandra I. Erwin
Federal procurement officials want meaningful change in acquisition policies. But enough with the blue-ribbon panels on how to overhaul the system, concluded a survey by the Professional Services Council and Grant Thornton. Acquisition professionals, particularly at Defense, said it is time for a “moratorium on new initiatives,” considering that after 20 years of attempts at reform not much has been accomplished. The problem is that agencies have been deluged by reform proposals and never have enough time to implement them before the next wave. In 1986, the Packard Commission found that weapons systems development “takes too long and costs too much.”
In the 1990s, Congress passed the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act of 1994; the Federal Acquisition Reform Act of 1996; the Defense Reform Act of 1997, and the Federal Activities Inventory Reform Act of 1998.
Recent congressional hearings concluded that although some improvements had been made, the same basic problems exist.
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