Engagement Versus Disengagement: How Structural and Commercially-Based Regulatory Changes Have Increased Government Risks in Federal Acquisitions

Summary

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The purpose of this working paper is to highlight the challenges and associated risks Federal contracting officers face while conducting business under commercially-based contracting legislation and, with concurrent reductions in the acquisition workforce, the potential risks these changes place on the taxpayer. The researcher's thorough review of published articles, along with collegiate discussions with prominent practitioners and academics indicates that the Federal Government may be exposed to increased risks due to recent commercial-practice legislation and structural changes in the acquisition work force. The past decade-long wave of acquisition work-force reductions and commercially inspired acquisition reforms has created a responsive and progressive business environment. Yet, it has done so at the cost of the Federal government becoming less "engaged" in key oversight and management functions. This disengagement may be exposing Federal contracting officers and taxpayers to greater financial, programmatic and performance risks.

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Extract

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Engagement Versus Disengagement: How Structural and Commercially-Based Regulatory Changes Have Increased Government Risks in Federal Acquisitions

INTRODUCTION: THE BACKDROP

Acquisition reform initiatives, commercialization of business processes, and a decade-long streamlining of the acquisition workforce have all been aimed at fundamentally improving the business of acquiring goods and services for Federal agencies, including the Department of Defense. The National Performance Review kicked-off the current era's wave of reforms-initially commencing in 1993. Initial efforts at reform gained significant momentum during the Clinton presidency and, more recently, from influential reformers such as Jacques S. Gansler, former Undersecretary of Defense (AT&L) and Representative Tom Davis (RVA) of Virginia, who chairs and leads the Committee on Government Reform.

The impetus for reforming and streamlining the acquisition workforce stems as much from a move towards greater efficiency as from the reality of adapting business practices to meet an evershrinking acquisition workforce; likewise, changes have been catalyzed by a concurrent effort to encourage innovative companies which traditionally have not conducted business with the Federal government to enter into contracts for goods and services with Federal Agencies. Amidst all of the reforms and structural changes has been a shift in the nature, or make-up, of what the Federal government procures- from predominantly tangible goods and hardware to a near fifty-fifty mix of goods and services. Recent legislative initiatives have created substantive changes in the business processes that Federal contracting officers have at their disposal. The Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act (FASA),1 the Federal Acquisition Reform Act (FARA)2 and the Services Acquisition Reform Act (SARA)3 have all moved Federal acquisition policies and procedures closer to commercial-industry standard. However, the concurrent down-sizing of the acquisition workforce, combined with the move towa...

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