DoD making massive investment in its acquisition workforce Published April 29, 2010 By Derek Kaufman 88th Air Base Wing Public Affairs DAYTON, Ohio -- The Department of Defense is investing several billion dollars to re-build, train and educate its acquisition workforce, and it expects a return on its investment. Mr. Shay Assad, director of Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy, remarked there are about 127,000 people in the Defense acquisition workforce who currently contract some $400 billion in goods and services. He was one of several prominent Pentagon officials who spoke at the DoD Acquisition Insight Conference, held April 20 - 21 at Sinclair Community College in Dayton. The annual event attracted more than 700 acquisition, technology and logistics experts from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and across the Defense Department. DoD is making a significant investment in growing and training its in-house acquisition workforce by 20,000 over the next five years, Mr. Assad noted. The growth will be relatively evenly split with about 10,000 contracting and contract oversight positions and an equivalent number divided up between program management, logistics management, acquisition management and systems engineering. A small number of attorney's are also being hired. Mr. Assad said there is a lot going right with acquisition. He noted DoD spends more on contract services than on weapons systems and information technology equipment combined. "The idea that we are quote unquote 'broken' is not quite correct," Mr. Assad said. "However, we have a lot of room for improvement." It is a myth that DoD simply can't get it right without inviting contractor protests, Mr. Assad said. Providing some context, he noted that of 3,255,000 contracting actions across the Defense Department, only 13 procurements were overturned by contractor protests to the Government Accountability Office last year. Years of nearly continuous restructure and wartime support have also led to a frenetic pace for the acquisition community. The Weapon Systems Acquisition Reform Act of 2009 signed into law by President Obama last May, is the latest legislation to change the way the military buys weapons and other equipment and services. Wartime deployments have also placed unusual demands on active duty contracting officers. Within the Air Force, military officers in the contracting career field typically rotate between four or six month deployments and an equal amount of time spent at home station. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and other senior Pentagon leaders recognize the Deparment's military and civilian acquisition workforce is overstressed, Mr. Assad said, noting growth in contract dollars from $135 billion in 2001 to $400 billion this year, accompanied by large increases in oversight and documentation while workforce growth was flat. Mr. Assad noted that Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio was once the preeminent DoD recognized leader at estimating program costs and negotiating prices with defense contractors. It's a skill that has been allowed to atrophy, he noted. "We need to build that pricing capability back up," he said. "It's extremely important for us to have world-class pricing talent, so that we make sure that we get a reasonable deal for our taxpayers." Rebuilding the workforce will be accomplished through a mix of newly created government jobs and in-sourcing of acquisition and acquisition support services currently performed by contractors. Workforce training and education are critically important, Mr. Assad said. He lauded Defense Acquisition University conferences and training courses as extremely valuable to aid acquisition workers hone their skills, network and become more professional. Defense acquisition workforce professionals are required to obtain 80 continuous learning points every two years. The annual DoD Acquisition Insight Conference included town hall style briefings and focused breakout seminars on topics ranging from performance based logistics to combat mission support and services contracts. Participants earned 16 continuous learning points. Defense Acquisition University offers classes and online training. For more information, visit www.dau.mil.