Michael Cohen at Democracy Arsenal looks at President Obama’s efforts to reform defense contracting and is less than impressed: hat goes unanswered is who is
“„[W]hat goes unanswered is who is going to carry out the President’s orders. What is not included in the President’s plan is how he plans on dealing with the crisis in the government contracting workforce. Take the Pentagon for example. Over the past several years “acquisition workforce has dwindled by 25 percent, while the contracting workload has increased by a factor of seven.” The Defense Contract Management Agency alone has lost more than half its workforce and according to a Pentagon estimate“in 1997 one auditor was responsible for $642 million in private contracts; today one auditor is responsible for $2 billion in private contracts.”
“„This problem is only going to get worse as more than half of all contract auditors are expected to retire within the next 10 years. What is needed are not only more contract management officials, but the Pentagon also needs to make this career path an attractive one for career officers so that they are persuaded to stay with it.