Survey: Fearful Acquisition Workers Play It Safe A new survey paints a picture of a demoralized federal acquisition workforce, fearful of what they see as a “gotcha” mentality among inspectors general, congressional investigators and the news media. “Fear is dominating,” said Diane Denholm, the survey director and a partner in the consulting firm Grant Thornton. “They are afraid to make a move.” The atmosphere is stifling innovation in federal acquisition, she added. “We hear routinely from companies that best-value contracting almost doesn’t exist any more,” said Stan Soloway, president of the Professional Services Council, which sponsored the survey. “Almost everything is low-price, technically acceptable.” He said contracting officers hesitate to award work to anyone but the lowest bidder “for fear that somebody down the road is going to say, ‘Gee you could have done that cheaper,’ not recognizing what value tradeoffs were made in the process.” In addition to the fear of auditors and IGs, Denholm said, “Fear of protests is huge.” Grant Thornton and PSC conducted in-depth interviews with several dozen senior federal acquisition officials. While the survey is not statistically valid, it provides insight into the thinking of acquisition professionals on key issues. The condition of the acquisition workforce was the top concern of respondents, as it has been in prior surveys. They see both a shortage of personnel and a lack of properly trained personnel. Although the Bush administration has made some efforts to cure those ills, only one-third of the professionals said they have seen improvement in recent years. Soloway said several hundred acquisition positions throughout the government are vacant. “Every agency is hiring,” acting GSA Administrator Jim Williams told the National Contract Management Association conference in Bethesda, MD, Nov. 20. But he said agencies are raiding each other because acquisition professionals are “a scarce resource.” Even though President-elect Obama promised to cut contract spending by 10% and the recession will pinch the federal budget, improvements in the acquisition workforce “ought to be a high priority,” Soloway said. “If I want to drive higher performance, if I want to, as the new president does, drive the use of technology throughout government – which is probably the highest agenda item on the president-elect’s management agenda – then I need to put the tools in place and be ready to invest the resources to enable that.” He added that Obama has emphasized the need for more effective and more efficient contracting. “Anybody who has spent much time in and around this business…would agree that it’s is entirely conceivable and possible that you can make some meaningful, noticeable savings through more effective and efficient contracting,” he said. But Steven Schooner, co-director of the Procurement Law Program at George Washington University, warned, “The overall sentiment [in the campaign] was anti-contractor.” Speaking at the National Contract Management Association conference, Schooner said, “We have a perception problem with the public, the media and the Congress.” He said the federal acquisition community and industry need to explain “that contractors do provide value to the government.”