|
Washington Pulse
Expand Work Force Based on Quality, Not Quantity, Warns Former Pentagon official
6
2,009
By Sandra I. Erwin
The Defense Department should be careful in how it goes about expanding its acquisition work force, warns former Pentagon procurement chief John J. Young Jr.
Filling vacancies quickly is not as important as making sure that those who are hired are the “right people,” Young wrote in an open letter to his staff before he departed in April.
During the past decade, the Defense Department lost thousands of acquisition professionals as a result of government downsizing efforts. After 9/11 and even more so after the invasion of Iraq, it became clear that the department did not have enough procurement experts to manage an avalanche of new contracts and massive increases in spending on equipment and services. To fill the gaps in acquisition expertise, the Pentagon hired contractors. Members of Congress and outside groups have criticized the Pentagon’s reliance on the private sector, particularly in roles such as oversight of acquisition programs. According to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, contractors make up 39 percent of the Pentagon’s work force -- although not all contractors are in acquisition jobs -- and he wants to bring that number down to 26 percent during the next five years. He authorized the hiring of 20,000 professionals, 4,000 of whom are expected to join the government in fiscal year 2010.
“There is broad agreement that we need to grow the acquisition work force,” Young said. The Pentagon’s public servant ranks have remained flat since 2001 while the defense budget for development and acquisition increased 119 percent he noted. But current support for a larger government work force may erode if Pentagon leaders fail to articulate precisely why these people are needed and what particular skills they must have.
“I believe broad arguments to just generally increase the work force will not be sustainable in the long term,” Young said. Each military service should estimate the number of people it needs by skill area -- such as engineering, contracts, financial and management personnel. “It should even be possible to more precisely define these numbers based on the type of program -- airplane, ship, ground vehicle, missile -- and the software content or other technical factors.”
The service also should make sure that the budget supports this staffing, said Young. “We have to move beyond just asking systems commands for staffing. We have to advocate the budgets and ensure that the services hire and allocate the talent.”
|