Background

Congress has recognized the need for a professional acquisition  workforce by establishing education, training, and experience  requirements for entry into and advancement in the acquisition career  fields for federal agencies. A number of governmental organizations play  critical roles in assisting agencies in building and sustaining their  acquisition workforces. Among these agencies, the Office of Management  and Budget’s Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) provides  government-wide guidance on acquisition workforce issues, and for  civilian agencies the Federal Acquisition Institute promotes the  development of the civilian acquisition workforce as well as an information  management system—the Federal Acquisition Institute Training  Application System—to collect and analyze acquisition workforce data.
In 2005, OFPP issued guidance to civilian agencies on developing and  managing the acquisition workforce and directed agency Chief Acquisition  Officers—responsible for monitoring and evaluating agency acquisition  functions—to carry out specific acquisition workforce actions. These  actions include appointing an Acquisition Career Manager and developing  and maintaining an acquisition career management program to provide  coordinated input to the Chief Acquisition Officer and Chief Human  Capital Officer regarding short- and long-term agency needs, propose an  annual budget for acquisition workforce development, and maintain  consistent agency-wide data on those serving in the acquisition  workforce. The guidance also identifies positions that are to be included  at a minimum in the definition of the workforce so they can be trained and  developed using common standards and directed the Federal Acquisition  Institute to develop certification programs to generally serve as one  means to demonstrate that an employee meets the core education,  training, and experience requirements for a variety of acquisition-related  disciplines. The Federal Acquisition Institute established certification  programs for contracting in 2006 and for contracting officer’s  representatives and program and project managers in 2007.
In 2009, OFPP issued the Acquisition Workforce Development Strategic  Plan for Civilian Agencies for Fiscal Years 2010-2014 to further guide  agency planning efforts. The plan establishes an annual workforce  planning process to be managed by OFPP as well as a 5-year action plan  to improve workforce development efforts and the workforce management  infrastructure. Agencies are required to develop annual acquisition  workforce human capital plans that identify strategies and goals for  increasing the capacity and capability of the acquisition workforce for the  period ending in fiscal year 2014. According to OFPP, successful  workforce planning and implementation should involve significant and  meaningful collaboration among agency leaders. Specifically, Chief  Acquisition Officers are to work with their Chief Human Capital Officers,  Acquisition Career Managers, and Chief Financial Officers to plan for  growth in the capacity and capability of the acquisition workforce. In 2011,  OFPP also issued a memorandum highlighting hiring flexibilities such as  the availability of direct hire authority and the Student Career Experience  Program.
At DOT, the Senior Procurement Executive, within the Office of the  Secretary, provides oversight of DOT acquisition policy and is delegated  many of the Chief Acquisition Officer responsibilities. Specifically, the  Senior Procurement Executive has primary responsibility for acquisition  workforce management, issues related to strategic acquisition policy, and  implementation of acquisition workforce policies. DOT relies on  collaboration between the Senior Procurement Executive and the  department’s OAs to manage DOT’s acquisition workforce. For example,  DOT policy directs the Senior Procurement Executive to appoint an  Acquisition Career Manager to manage the acquisition workforce, identify  workforce development strategies, and coordinate with OA  representatives to ensure that the OAs maintain accurate and consistent  data on the acquisition workforce. FAA is exempt from the federal  acquisition system—the various statutes and regulations that govern  federal procurement practices by federal government agencies—and has  its own acquisition management system, which includes its own  acquisition workforce plan and acquisition workforce career development  program. Table 1 provides the roles and responsibilities of key  acquisition workforce management positions outside of FAA.
DOT has multiple missions—primarily focusing on transportation mobility  and safety—that are carried out by its OAs. In fiscal year 2011, 5 of  DOT’s 11 OAs with procurement spending accounted for 92 percent of  the department’s $5.6 billion in procurements. See table 2 for fiscal year  2011 procurement spending by the 11 OAs.
In May 2011, the DOT Inspector General identified a number of  weaknesses in the Office of the Secretary’s acquisition function. Among  the factors contributing to weaknesses, the Inspector General identified  an organizational structure that does not support the acquisition function,  and long-standing vacancies in key leadership positions, including the  Senior Procurement Executive and Acquisition Career Manager.  According to the Inspector General, the acquisition structure created an  additional layer of management review and restricted direct  communication from the Senior Procurement Executive to DOT’s leaders,  limiting the ability to promote acquisition as a strategic contributor to  DOT’s success. In December 2011, DOT changed the organizational  structure so that the Senior Procurement Executive now has a direct line  of reporting to the department’s Chief Acquisition Officer on strategic  acquisition workforce management and other strategic issues, thereby  elevating the procurement executive’s ability to raise issues to a more  strategic level within the department.

	DOT Lacks Sufficient and Reliable Data to Fully Identify and Address Workforce Needs

DOT’s Senior Procurement Executive, responsible for acquisition  workforce planning and management, collects workforce data for federal  reporting purposes, but has not maintained sufficient and reliable data  needed to fully understand the department’s workforce needs or to  identify progress in addressing gaps in staffing and certification rates over  time. According to OFPP requirements, agencies are to collect, maintain,  and utilize data on the acquisition workforce to ensure effective  management. Federal internal control standards also call for managers to  collect and maintain data to assess performance over time to ensure  effectiveness and efficiency of operations and compliance with applicable  laws and regulations. DOT submitted acquisition workforce plans to  OFPP in 2010, 2011, and 2012 that reported progress in increasing  department-wide acquisition workforce staff levels and certification rates,  but did not maintain the supporting data in 2010 and 2011, and lacked  internal controls to ensure the quality of the data. We also identified data  discrepancies about the size of the acquisition workforce reported to  OFPP. As a result, we concluded that the aggregate data presented in  DOT’s acquisition workforce plans were not a sufficient or reliable basis  upon which to draw conclusions or identify changes in staffing and  certification rates over time. By contrast, we obtained the data DOT used  to prepare the 2012 plan, compared it with data from the OAs, and  interviewed OA officials about the sources and methods they used to  report the data. We found inconsistencies in how the OAs reported their  data that would affect the reliability of the department’s aggregate data,  but determined that the OA-level data were sufficiently reliable to make  observations about staffing and certification rates at the individual OAs.  Based on our analysis of this data, we found that four OAs would  potentially need to replace from 50 percent to over 80 percent of their  contract specialists by the end of fiscal year 2013 to meet staffing targets.  In addition, some OAs have low certification rates particularly for  program/project managers and contracting officer’s representatives,  which increases the risk that DOT acquisition programs are not being  effectively managed and that contractors are not receiving appropriate  oversight.

		DOT Lacks Sufficient and Reliable Data to Assess Progress over Time

According to OFPP requirements, agencies are to collect, maintain, and  utilize information to ensure effective management of the acquisition  workforce. In accordance with OFPP’s Acquisition Workforce  Development Strategic Plan for Civilian Agencies for Fiscal Years 2010- 2014, DOT submitted annual acquisition workforce plans in 2010, 2011,  and 2012. To do so, the Acquisition Career Manager distributed an OFPP  data request template to the OAs and aggregated the OA-level data  received into a single department-wide plan. Each of DOT’s plans has  included data on the size of the acquisition workforce, estimated attrition,  and targets for future staffing levels.
Based on the workforce plans DOT submitted to OFPP, DOT reported  increases in the size of the acquisition workforce and certification rates for  all acquisition workforce segments reported—contract specialists,  contracting officers, program/project managers, and contracting officer’s  representatives—from fiscal year 2009 to 2011. However, the Office of  the Senior Procurement Executive did not retain the underlying data it  used to prepare the 2010 and 2011 plans and in some cases, the data  were also not available from the OAs. As a result, we were unable to  independently verify the accuracy and completeness of the department- wide data. Moreover, we found inconsistencies in the data DOT reported  to OFPP. For example, DOT’s 2010 plan presents conflicting data on the  size of the acquisition workforce, ranging from almost 600 to over 3,000  staff. According to DOT officials, one table was developed by acquisition  officials and the other by human resources officials. As a result of these  discrepancies and other limitations, we concluded that the aggregate data  presented in DOT’s acquisition workforce plans were unreliable and DOT  should not use the information to draw conclusions or identify changes in  staffing and certification levels over time.
For DOT’s 2012 plan, we compared data we received from the Office of  the Senior Procurement Executive and the OAs and interviewed OA  officials about the methods and sources they used to collect the data. We  found that the OAs were not consistent in how they reported their  workforce data due in part to a lack of internal controls to ensure that the  OAs are collecting and maintaining reliable and consistent data to inform  acquisition workforce planning and management. Internal controls  generally should be designed to assure that ongoing monitoring occurs in  the course of normal operations to include comparisons, reconciliations,  and other management actions that ensure information quality over time.  While these inconsistencies affect the reliability of the department’s  aggregate data, we determined that the OA-level data used to prepare  DOT’s 2012 plan were sufficiently reliable to make qualitative  observations about the staffing challenges and certification shortfalls that  the individual OAs face.
Officials from the Office of the Senior Procurement Executive stated that  they do not have data reliability checks in place and did not provide  guidance to ensure that the OAs are collecting and maintaining reliable  and consistent data to inform acquisition workforce planning and  management. In the absence of guidance to ensure consistency in the  information collected, OAs took different approaches to reporting the  number of personnel in the acquisition workforce. For example, some  OAs cited challenges with tracking the number of contracting officer’s  representatives in the workforce or did not track them altogether. In  contrast with contract specialists, who are associated with a job series  that can be tracked in personnel systems, contracting officer’s  representatives are not designated by a specific job series and their  duties are sometimes performed as a collateral duty on a part-time basis.  OA officials also explained that the number of employees performing  contracting officer’s representative duties changes constantly as contracts  begin and end, requiring that lists be revalidated on a continual basis for  accuracy. Officials from the Office of the Secretary and the Federal  Railroad Administration reported that they had not tracked the number of  contracting officer’s representatives in the past. The Office of the  Secretary was not able to provide us with the number of contracting  officer’s representatives in the workforce for fiscal years 2009, 2010, and  2011 and the Federal Railroad Administration provided estimates.

		Some Operating Administrations Face Significant Acquisition Workforce Staffing Challenges and Certification Shortfalls

Based on our analysis of the data collected from the OAs to prepare the  2012 Acquisition Human Capital Plan, we found that some OAs face  significant acquisition workforce staffing challenges and certification  shortfalls. We also found that the OAs did not use a consistent or well- documented approach to estimate attrition which could result in an under-  or overstatement of the gap they would need to fill to achieve their staffing  targets, and that staffing challenges may be understated because some  OAs constrained their workforce estimates to reflect budget realities.
We found that the OAs face significant challenges in maintaining  sufficient numbers of contract specialists who perform a range of  acquisition services, such as market research, preparation of statements  of work, and the development and management of acquisition plans.  Based on our analysis of DOT data, we found that four OAs would  potentially need to replace from 50 percent to over 80 percent of their  contract specialists by the end of fiscal year 2013 to manage estimated  attrition and achieve their staffing targets as shown in table 3. The data in  the table reflect estimated attrition and staffing targets for fiscal years  2012 and 2013 that DOT reported to OFPP in April 2012 and do not take  into account actual hiring and attrition, or changes to estimates.
We also found that the OAs did not use a consistent or well-documented  approach to estimate attrition which could result in an under- or  overstatement of the gap they would need to fill to achieve their staffing  targets. For example, seven OAs estimated that fiscal year 2012 and  2013 attrition would be lower than the attrition reported for fiscal year  2011. To illustrate, the Federal Highway Administration lost seven  contract specialists in 2011, or 13 percent, but estimated future attrition at  5 percent a year. Similarly, the National Highway Traffic Safety  Administration and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration  reported fiscal year 2011 attrition rates of 36 and 16 percent respectively,  but estimated no attrition for fiscal year 2012 and 2013. In contrast, FAA  estimated future attrition at 15 percent which is consistent with what it  reported for fiscal year 2011. While there may be good reasons for  estimating attrition based on information other than historical attrition, the  Office of the Senior Procurement Executive did not provide guidance to  ensure that each OA used a reasonable approach.
Given the high demand for contract specialists across the federal  government, staffing increases combined with attrition creates a potential  gap that may be challenging for some OAs to address. For example,  some OAs plan to hire entry-level staff, which will require investment in  training and development to achieve certification requirements. As an  added concern, one OA official stated that the September 2012 expiration  of direct hire authority for acquisition positions will increase the amount of  time it will take to hire a contract specialist from a few weeks to a few  months. This authority allowed agencies who could demonstrate a  shortage of highly qualified candidates for certain acquisition positions to  streamline the application process to hire candidates directly and more  quickly.
FAA also identified staffing challenges for other segments of its  acquisition workforce including program/project management and  research and engineering. According to FAA’s 2011 acquisition workforce  plan, challenges with these segments are driven by the predicted growth  in requirements combined with expected retirements and the difficulty in  hiring qualified candidates. For example, FAA reported that 39 percent of  its program/project managers are eligible to retire by 2015, and identified  the need to develop new in-house program managers. Further, officials  reported that entry-level hiring alone is not sufficient due to program  complexity and the need for individuals with years of experience.  According to FAA, these acquisition professionals must demonstrate  considerable leadership, possess the expertise to manage the  development of complex, large-scale air traffic systems, and bring diverse  stakeholders together. FAA officials also noted the ability to backfill  employees lost to attrition is uncertain and that budget constraints have  forced FAA to limit what hiring authority is available to the most critical  positions. Officials noted that while acquisition positions are deemed  critical, so too are air traffic controllers and other mission-critical and  safety-related positions. If FAA cannot attain appropriate numbers of  personnel for the workforce, it plans to prioritize and shift workload and  staffing to best meet priority needs, increase the workload for existing  staff where possible, or supplement the workforce by using contractors.
In addition, staffing challenges faced by DOT may be understated  because some OAs constrained or revised their workforce estimates to  reflect budget realities and did not fully take into account the people  needed to do the work. For example, a Maritime Administration official  explained that they originally estimated the need to increase the number  of program/project managers from 6 in fiscal year 2011 to 36 by the end  of fiscal year 2013, but later adjusted the estimate to 12 due to  anticipated resource constraints. Similarly, an official from the Pipeline  and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration stated that they projected  the need to increase the number of contract specialists from 10 in fiscal  year 2011 to 12 in fiscal years 2012 and 2013, but later revised their  projected need to 10 because the request for additional staff was not  approved. FAA officials also told us that managers validate the previous  years’ projections and adjust the estimates as they come closer to  executing the plan to factor in what the budget will accommodate. Despite  constrained budgets, OAs could benefit from having an informed  understanding of the number of acquisition workforce personnel needed  to fulfill their missions. For example, the Department of Defense requires  the calculation of both unconstrained and constrained requirements, both  of which should be used to prioritize decisions.
Across the department, some OAs have not ensured that the acquisition  workforce is in compliance with federal certification standards. According  to OFPP, the quality and effectiveness of the federal acquisition process  depends on the development of a capable and competent workforce and  the Federal Acquisition Institute has developed certification standards  which include a combination of education, training, and experience  requirements. In accordance with these requirements, DOT has  developed career guidance for contracting professionals, program/project  managers, and contracting officer’s representatives which outlines the  general training and experience requirements for each profession. FAA  also has career guidance and certification standards for these three  professions, as well as integrated logistics support. In addition, FAA has  developed competency models for systems engineering and test and  evaluation professionals to serve as the basis for workforce development,  and plans to develop certification standards for all of its acquisition  disciplines in the future.
DOT reported that 91 percent of its 463 contract specialists were certified  in fiscal year 2011. Based on our analysis of DOT data, eight OAs  reported contract specialist certification rates of 95 percent or greater  while several others reported much lower rates. For example, the Federal  Transit Administration reported that 65 percent, or 8 of its 13 contract  specialist were certified. The National Highway Traffic Safety  Administration reported that only 36 percent of its contract specialists (4  of 11) were certified. According to DOT’s Acquisition Career Manager, the  department should be aiming to have all of its contract specialists  certified, but he and other officials stated that 100 percent certification is  not feasible. For example, Level 1, or entry-level contract specialists,  generally need to complete certain core contracting courses and have 1  year of contracting experience to be eligible for certification. Given  attrition levels of about 15 percent across the department, a sustained  focus on developing and certifying the contracting professionals is critical  to improving and maintaining certification levels.
DOT reported that 58 percent of its 64 program/project managers were  certified in fiscal year 2011. Program/project managers perform such  duties as developing government requirements, defining measurable  performance standards, and managing contractor activities to ensure that  the intended outcomes are achieved. FAA, with 54 program/project  managers reported that 29 were certified, for a certification rate of 54  percent. The Maritime Administration and the Office of the Secretary both  reported that 100 percent of their program/project managers were  certified while the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration  reported that it does not have any programs of the magnitude or  complexity that require program/project manager certification, but that its  two program/project managers are in the process of obtaining  certification.
DOT reported that 47 percent of its 2,441 contracting officer’s  representatives were certified in fiscal year 2011 despite the federal  requirement that they to be certified within 6 months of their date of  appointment. Contracting officer’s representatives are appointed by  contracting officers to perform certain contract administration duties,  including inspection and acceptance of supplies or services. Across the  department, three OAs reported certification rates over 90 percent while  the remaining reported certification rates ranging from 18 percent at FAA  to 78 percent at the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation.  Table 4 provides information on the number of contracting officer’s  representatives certified at each OA in fiscal year 2011.
Although the data we obtained and reviewed were not sufficient to assess  DOT’s progress in improving certification rates over time, DOT reported  that the number of people certified increased substantially between fiscal  years 2010 and 2011 and that a focus on certification programs is central  to DOT’s strategy to strengthen the skills and capabilities of the  acquisition workforce. FAA officials also stated that they have made a  concerted effort to increase certification rates particularly for  program/project managers and contracting officer’s representatives. For  example, FAA officials reported that as of the end of fiscal year 2012, 85  percent of program managers responsible for major programs were  certified at the requisite level and that the percentage of contracting  officer’s representatives certified has improved to 49 percent.

	DOT Lacks the Strategic Focus and Oversight Needed for Effective Workforce Planning and Management

DOT lacks the strategic focus and oversight needed to ensure that the  department can meet its acquisition workforce goals and that strategies to  hire, develop, and retain acquisition professionals are implemented and  sustained over time. Federal policy requires agencies to conduct strategic  planning to identify short- and long-term agency needs. This includes  recruitment and retention strategies for obtaining the acquisition  workforce resources and skills required to meet future agency mission  needs. GAO has identified leading practices agencies should follow when  developing workforce plans which include developing a coordinated  planning process to involve stakeholders; analyzing workforce gaps to  inform strategic planning and budget formulation; and developing  strategies to monitor and evaluate progress. The Office of the Senior  Procurement Executive has not developed a coordinated planning  process and does not use the acquisition workforce data reported to  OFPP for acquisition workforce planning and management. The Office of  the Senior Procurement Executive has recently taken steps to align its  workforce plans with the department’s strategic goals, but given  challenges with maintaining reliable data, lacks a sound baseline for  assessing progress toward reaching these goals or for making a business  case for directing resources or management attention to OAs, which may  face the greatest workforce challenges. Further, the Office of the Senior  Procurement Executive has only recently identified a limited set of  performance metrics to assess progress toward reaching acquisition  workforce human capital goals. By contrast, we found that only FAA has a  strategic process to align the organization’s human capital program with  its current and emerging missions, and to develop long-term strategies for  acquiring, developing, and retaining the staff needed to perform agency  missions. Different approaches may be appropriate, but without strategic  workforce planning, agencies risk not meeting mission requirements and  are unable to develop strategies for achieving long-term goals. We also  found that the Office of the Senior Procurement Executive has not  maintained training and certification data for its acquisition workforce in  accordance with federal requirements, but has efforts under way to  improve compliance.

		DOT Has Not Determined Its Data Needs or Developed a Coordinated Acquisition Workforce Planning Process

The Office of the Senior Procurement Executive collects acquisition  workforce data for reporting purposes, but has not determined its own  data needs or developed a coordinated planning process to fully involve  stakeholders including human capital officials and procurement and  program officials at the OAs. Our prior work has shown that strategic  workforce planning is most likely to succeed if top management officials  set the overall goals and direction of the effort and involve stakeholders in  developing and implementing strategies to achieve the goals. For  example, top leadership that is engaged in strategic workforce planning  can provide organizational vision, help provide stability as the workforce  plan is being developed and implemented, and create support within the  agency to ensure that workforce strategies to hire, develop, and retain  acquisition professionals are implemented and sustained over time. By  contrast, the Office of the Senior Procurement Executive has not  established specific responsibilities for itself or the OAs for maintaining  the data reported to OFPP, or for using the data for management  purposes. For example, officials from the Office of the Senior  Procurement Executive told us that they have not used the workforce  data reported to OFPP to manage the workforce, determined other  information that would be useful for planning and oversight, or provided  oversight through ongoing monitoring of workforce data. However, the  Acquisition Career Manager retained the data for the 2012 plan and  indicated that he intends to retain and review data compiled for future  plans.
Officials from some of the five OAs we met with reported that they do not  use DOT’s annual strategic planning effort for long-term planning  purposes. FAA, which accounted for more than half of the 3,146  acquisition workforce members reported in DOT’s 2012 plan, issues its  own annual acquisition workforce plan, which is tailored to meet its  workforce management priorities. In contrast with FAA, some OA officials  told us that their acquisition workload and workforce is generally stable.  For example, officials from the Federal Transit Administration and the  Maritime Administration, which reported 80 and 155 acquisition workforce  members in fiscal year 2011, respectively, stated that forecasting  workforce needs is straightforward due to a stable workload and set  number of authorized positions. Additionally, some OA officials stated that  DOT’s workforce planning efforts are limited because the reporting  instructions are not clear and the data requested varies from year to year.
Our prior work has also shown the importance of collaboration between  human capital and acquisition agency leaders and managers to develop  acquisition workforce plans. While some OAs reported that they consulted  with human resources officials to obtain information such as retirement  eligibility to prepare their submissions, we found that DOT’s Chief Human  Capital Officer and Office of Human Resources have had a limited role in  strategic planning for the acquisition workforce. According to a senior  human resources official, his office took the lead in preparing DOTs 2010  workforce plan, but had very limited involvement in preparing the plans for  2011 and 2012.
Officials from the Office of the Senior Procurement Executive cited  several reasons why the office does not direct the department’s  acquisition workforce planning efforts. Specifically, officials told us that  the OAs are best suited to manage the workforce given the decentralized  nature of the department and the wide range of missions performed by  the OAs. However, officials stated that their capacity to direct planning  efforts is limited because the OAs have their own budget authorities and  that the office does not have the staff or resources needed to perform  oversight of strategic planning efforts. For example, as of October 2012,  the Office of the Senior Procurement Executive had just two staff  supporting the department’s acquisition workforce program on a part-time  basis. In addition, the office’s limited focus on acquisition workforce  issues is also due in part to other acquisition priorities and challenges  facing the office. The current Senior Procurement Executive and  Acquisition Career Manager assumed their positions in late 2010 after a  period of longstanding vacancies and have been focusing on addressing  significant weaknesses in the department’s acquisition function identified  by the DOT Inspector General. As of December 2012, the Inspector  General had closed 14 of the 16 recommendations it made to address  weaknesses it identified in the Office of the Secretary’s acquisition  function based on actions taken by the Senior Procurement Executive in  2011 and 2012.
According to Office of the Senior Procurement Executive officials, their  role is to provide a focal point for coordination among the OAs, rather  than providing direction and support for acquisition workforce planning  efforts. For example, in 2009, the Senior Procurement Executive  chartered the Strategic Acquisition Council to provide a forum for senior  DOT acquisition leaders from each of the OAs to address issues affecting  the DOT procurement community, share best practices, and ensure a  consistent focus on acquisition improvement throughout the department.  The Senior Procurement Executive also chartered the Acquisition  Workforce Working Group with the goals of performing comprehensive  workforce planning for DOT and developing tools, guidance, and  suggestions for recruitment and retention. To date, the group has focused  on outreach initiatives to publicize contracting career opportunities, and  organized a conference in April 2012 to share knowledge and provide  networking opportunities among contract specialists.
The Acquisition Career Manager also administers the department’s  certification program and aims to leverage limited training resources by  identifying and informing the OAs of free and low-cost training  opportunities across the government. For example, the Acquisition Career  Manager is responsible for approving all certifications and views this as  the department’s means of providing oversight that the OAs are in  compliance with DOT and federal certification requirements. According to  the Acquisition Career Manager, the department has also played a role in  bringing together individual OAs with other federal partners to support the  development of acquisition workforce training programs. For example, the  Federal Highway Administration developed and implemented a 40-hour  training course for contracting officer’s representatives through  collaboration with the Federal Acquisition Institute and the Department of  Homeland Security. According to officials, the Acquisition Career  Manager will continue to work with the Federal Highway Administration to  leverage this course to create a low cost, and customizable training  course available across the department.

		The Office of the Senior Procurement Executive Has Taken Steps to Align Its Workforce Plans with Strategic Goals, but Faces Challenges to Assess Progress

The Office of the Senior Procurement Executive has recently taken steps  to align its workforce plans with the department’s strategic goals, but  given challenges with maintaining reliable data, lacks a sound baseline  for assessing progress toward reaching these goals or for making a  business case for directing resources or management attention to OAs  which may face the greatest workforce risks. According to leading  practices identified in our prior work, agencies need to determine the  occupations, skills, and competencies that are critical to achieving their  missions and goals, as well as to identify any gaps between their current  workforce and the workforce they will need in the future. Further,  workforce planning that is linked to an agency’s strategic goals and  budget formulation allows agencies to assess the extent to which the  workforce contributes to achieving overarching mission needs and ensure  that their annual budget requests include adequate funds to implement  their human capital strategies, such as recruitment or retention bonuses,  awards, training, student loan repayments, and tuition assistance.
In October 2012, the Senior Procurement Executive issued a strategic  plan for fiscal years 2013 through 2016 which identifies acquisition  workforce development as one of four strategic goals. The strategies to  achieve the acquisition workforce goal focus on efforts to promote  existing certification programs, leverage training resources, and make  DOT a more attractive workplace for acquisition workforce professionals.  One of the indicators intended to measure progress is the percentage of  the acquisition workforce certified. By 2016, the department aims to  achieve certification rates of 85 percent for contract specialists and 75  percent for program/project managers and contracting officer’s  representatives. However, without a reliable baseline, the Senior  Procurement Executive has no basis for measuring progress.
The Office of the Secretary’s fiscal year 2011 and 2012 budget proposals  requested $7.6 million for acquisition workforce development with some  of the funds to be transferred to the OAs. According to both proposals,  funds would be used to increase acquisition workforce capacity through  training, recruitment, retention, and hiring additional members of the  acquisition workforce. The fiscal year 2012 proposal also specified that  funds would be used for business process re-engineering, organizational  development, and contractor support costs to collect acquisition  workforce data. According to officials, the specific plans were abandoned  when funding for these proposals was not approved. Because the Office  of the Senior Procurement Executive has not collected and maintained  reliable workforce data, the department lacks the basis needed to make  informed decisions to justify agency resource needs. For fiscal year 2013,  the Office of the Secretary requested about $700,000 to strengthen the  acquisition workforce but did not propose transferring funds to the OAs.  The proposal specified three key areas: contractor support costs to collect  data and provide training; business process re-engineering; and  innovative acquisition approaches.

		DOT Has Not Identified Workforce Development Strategies with Metrics to Assess Progress

DOT’s workforce plans do not identify clear workforce development  strategies or establish metrics to assess progress toward reaching  acquisition workforce human capital goals. Once agencies have identified  gaps, our prior work has found that they need to develop human capital  strategies—the programs, policies, and processes that agencies use to  build and manage their workforces—to close these gaps. These  strategies, tailored to the agencies’ unique needs, may include strategies  for hiring, training, staff development, succession planning, performance  management, and the use of human capital flexibilities, among other  things. While the OAs have identified and utilized some acquisition  workforce development strategies such recruiting entry-level hires, they  have generally not been linked to specific recruitment, retention, and  certification goals. For example, one of the strategies identified in DOT’s  2010 acquisition human capital plan was to develop a rotational exchange  program within the department to improve retention by providing  professional development opportunities for the acquisition workforce. In  November 2010, the Office of the Senior Procurement Executive  established a rotational exchange program within the department, but the  department’s plan did not identify goals or metrics such as the desired  number of exchanges. According to an official, the program had facilitated  one exchange as of July 2012. Similarly, DOT’s 2012 workforce plan  identified the agency’s goals for managing and strengthening the  acquisition workforce but did not include any specific metrics to assess  progress. These goals include a continued focus on certification  programs, staff development and retention, and communication and  knowledge sharing.

		FAA Has Developed a Strategic Acquisition Workforce Planning Process but DOT’s Inspector General Identified Challenges

In contrast with DOT’s other OAs, FAA operates under its own acquisition  authority and has its own workforce planning process and oversight  function that generally includes the key elements of leading practices for  workforce planning. For example, FAA has taken steps to identify its  acquisition workforce needs and incorporate them into planning decisions  and established the Acquisition Workforce Council, an executive-level  group that provides strategic leadership and oversight for acquisition  workforce planning and management. FAA has since issued acquisition  workforce plans in 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012 with planning data  through 2017. As a basis for its planning efforts, FAA took steps to  identify the acquisition workforce and develop career competencies and  certification requirements. FAA also developed a model to estimate  staffing requirements for each year which is validated by program officials  knowledgeable of program needs. FAA’s workforce plans include metrics,  such as the percentage of acquisition workforce positions filled against  forecasted needs and the average time to fill positions, and provides  monthly reports on staffing gains and losses to the workforce council.  Despite FAA being further along than DOT’s other OAs in terms of  developing the capacity and framework needed for effective planning, the  DOT Inspector General identified several challenges FAA has faced in  collecting accurate data on members of its acquisition workforce and  addressing workforce gaps and made a series of recommendations to  improve the programs, policies, and practices needed to ensure an  adequate and effective acquisition workforce. For example, the FAA  reported that it met its fiscal year 2009 workforce targets while the  Inspector General concluded that the FAA, by over-hiring in some  segments of the acquisition workforce and under-hiring in others, had not  adhered to its workforce plans. As of December 2012, the Inspector  General had closed 8 of the 11 recommendations based on FAA actions.

		DOT Has Not Maintained Training and Certification Data in Accordance with Federal Policy, but Has Efforts Under Way to Improve Compliance

DOT policy requires the OAs to maintain current and complete records on  acquisition workforce training and certification in accordance with OFPP  requirements, but has only recently begun to provide oversight to improve  compliance. According to OFPP requirements, agencies are to maintain  complete, current records on education, training, experience, and  certification for all acquisition workforce members in a government-wide  information management system. In 2011, the Federal Acquisition  Institute Training Application System (FAITAS) replaced the Acquisition  Career Management Information System as the repository of such  information. According to FAA officials, FAA is not subject to this  requirement and has its own process for tracking comparable data.
The Acquisition Career Manager has efforts under way to improve OA  compliance with the requirement to record training and certification data  in FAITAS, but current data are not complete. For example, DOT reported  that 1,093 acquisition workforce professionals were certified in fiscal year  2011, but as of September 2012, only 472 were registered in the system.  Of those, 398 were contracting officer’s representatives, fewer than half of  the 909 contracting officer’s representatives that DOT reported as  certified in fiscal year 2011, despite the OFPP requirement that all be  entered in the FAITAS system no later than February 15, 2012. The  Acquisition Career Manager stated that the data migration from the  Acquisition Career Management Information System to FAITAS did not  go smoothly and that his office has begun to manually reconcile data in  the system with data that the OAs are required by DOT policy to maintain.  The Acquisition Career Manager also stated that his office will not  approve a certification request unless the individual is registered in  FAITAS. While this is a step in the right direction, this level of oversight is  not sufficient as it only maintains management control over those who  submit certifications for approval, but not those who should be certified,  but are not. For example, several OAs were unable to provide us with the  number of CORs in the workforce or the number certified for fiscal years  2009 through 2011. As a result of this lack of oversight, the department  has no way of knowing whether the workforce meets the minimum  requirements needed to meet the department’s acquisition missions.

	Conclusions

DOT relies on its acquisition workforce to negotiate and administer  contracts and manage large-scale acquisition programs, but lacks the  reliable data and strategic focus needed to fully understand its workforce  needs over time and to ensure that the department can hire, develop, and  retain the acquisition professionals needed to perform the agency’s  current and future missions. This may put the department’s acquisition  missions at risk. While DOT has submitted annual acquisition workforce  plans to OFPP, the Office of the Senior Procurement Executive has not  maintained past data or determined what data it needs for management  purposes. Further, the Office of the Senior Procurement Executive relies  on the OAs to collect and compile acquisition workforce data and conduct  strategic planning but has not provided guidance on how to collect and  report workforce data, established internal controls to ensure that data  provided are accurate and complete, or established specific  responsibilities for maintaining the data, or for using it for management  purposes. Until the Office of the Senior Procurement Executive  determines what data are needed, and assesses resources necessary for  performing oversight, input into strategic plans will be inconsistent and  ultimately its utility will be diminished which limits the department’s ability  to plan for and address workforce challenges. While efforts are under way  to improve oversight of the agency’s certification program, oversight is  needed to ensure OA compliance with the requirement to record training  and certification data in FAITAS. To develop a comprehensive strategic  acquisition workforce planning framework, DOT needs to incorporate key  elements of effective planning, such as fully involving the Chief Human  Capital Officer and other stakeholders, analyzing workforce gaps and  developing strategies to address them, and monitoring and assessing  progress over time. Until DOT establishes such a framework, it will not  have a sound basis to identify or justify resources needed to fully address  its short- and long-term workforce needs. This exposes the department to  substantial risk that the workforce does not have the capacity or skills  needed to effectively manage the department’s current and future  acquisition missions.

	Recommendations for Executive Action

To help improve DOT’s ability to effectively address workforce needs, we  recommend that the Secretary of Transportation take the following five  actions:
Direct the Senior Procurement Executive to define data the  department needs to meet OFPP and DOT workforce planning and  oversight requirements;
Provide standards for internal controls or other guidance to ensure the  OAs collect, report, and maintain consistent and reliable data for  workforce planning and in FAITAS;
Establish specific responsibilities for the Office of the Senior  Procurement Executive and the OAs to maintain workforce data,  develop strategies and metrics, and monitor progress toward  addressing workforce gaps and certification deficiencies;
Assess whether the Office of the Senior Procurement Executive has  sufficient resources to effectively oversee the acquisition workforce;  and
Direct the Senior Procurement Executive and Chief Human Capital  Officer to establish a coordinated process for future acquisition  workforce planning.

	Agency Comments and Our Evaluation

We provided a draft of this report to DOT for its review and comment.  DOT provided written comments which are reprinted in appendix II, as  well as technical comments, which we incorporated as appropriate. DOT  generally agreed with our recommendations and described actions under  way or planned to address them. DOT also expressed concern, however,  that the draft report did not clearly convey the current status of its  acquisition workforce efforts and that much of the information that the  draft report relied upon to formulate its findings was drawn from the  period when there was considerable instability at multiple management  levels, including the Office of the Senior Procurement Executive.
We disagree that our findings do not reflect the current state at the  department. Our findings were largely based on the data and approach  that DOT used to prepare the acquisition workforce plan that it submitted  to the Office of Federal Procurement Policy in April 2012. Specifically, we  found that the operating administrations were not consistent in their  approach to reporting workforce data due in part to a lack of guidance,  oversight, and internal controls at the department level. DOT agreed in its  comments with the need to provide additional guidance to the operating  administrations and stated that collaborative efforts are currently  underway between the Office of the Senior Procurement Executive and  the Chief Human Capital Officer to better ensure the consistency and  reliability of the department’s acquisition workforce data. If implemented,  these steps could help the department establish a more reliable baseline  for monitoring and assessing changes in the size and certification rates of  the acquisition workforce over time. However, it is premature to determine  the effectiveness of the planned actions in addressing the acquisition  workforce challenges noted in this report. Continued progress and  successful implementation of these recent efforts will require sustained  leadership and management attention.
We are sending copies of this report to interested congressional  committees, as well as the Secretary of Transportation, and the Director,  Office of Management and Budget. In addition, this report will be made  available at no charge on the GAO website at www.gao.gov.
Please contact me at (202) 512-4841 or martinb@gao.gov if you or your  staff have any questions concerning this report. Contact points for our  Offices of Congressional Relations and Public Affairs may be found on  the last page of this report. GAO staff who made major contributions to  this report are listed in appendix III.

Appendix I: Objectives, Scope, and Methodology

This report focuses on the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) efforts  to identify and address its acquisition workforce needs through its  acquisition workforce planning efforts for 2010, 2011, and 2012. While we  obtained data from the 11 DOT operating administrations (OA) with  procurement spending in fiscal year 2011, we focused our review on the  five which accounted for 92 percent of the department’s fiscal year 2011  procurement spending based on data reported in the Federal  Procurement Data System-Next Generation. Our report assessed: (1) the  efforts of the Office of the Secretary of Transportation and DOT’s OAs to  identify acquisition workforce needs, and (2) the Office of the Secretary’s  role in providing oversight and support for acquisition workforce planning  and management. For the purposes of this report, we focused on the  Office of the Senior Procurement Executive, the office within Office of the  Secretary with primary responsibility for the acquisition workforce  planning and management.
To assess the efforts of the Office of the Senior Procurement Executive  and DOT’s OAs to identify acquisition workforce staffing and training  needs, we reviewed the acquisition workforce plans that DOT submitted  to the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) for 2010, 2011, and  2012 and took steps to assess the reliability of the data reported. We also  interviewed officials from the Office of the Senior Procurement Executive  and Office of Human Resources to discuss how the plans were compiled,  data sources used, and steps taken to verify the accuracy and  completeness of the data. We also collected acquisition workforce data  from the 11 OAs included in DOT’s human capital plans and interviewed  officials from the five OAs with the highest procurement spending in fiscal  year 2011 to discuss the data sources and methods used to track data on  the acquisition workforce such as attrition, staffing needs, and certification  levels. The data we reviewed included information on the size of the  acquisition workforce and certification rates for fiscal years 2009, 2010,  and 2011, as well as hiring targets, and estimated attrition through fiscal  year 2013.
To assess the reliability of the aggregate data reported to OFPP, we  reviewed the data presented in DOT’s plans for readily apparent errors,  omissions, and logical consistency. We also requested the underlying  data by OA that the Office of the Senior Procurement Executive used to  prepare the plans; however, officials were only able to provide us with the  underlying data used to prepare the 2012 plan. Since DOT was not able  to provide the underlying data used to prepare the 2010 and 2011 plans,  we attempted to obtain the data directly from the OAs. In response to our  initial data requests to the OAs, we received a variety of different  documents including resource charts and succession plans. Because the  data from the OAs was not provided in a consistent format and was not  always complete, we prepared and distributed a data collection  instrument to each of the OAs. We pre-populated the instrument based  on data the OAs provided, and asked the OAs to validate the data,  correct errors, or provide missing data. In some cases, the underlying  data was not available from the OAs. As a result, we were unable to  independently verify the accuracy and completeness of the data DOT  reported to OFPP in 2010 and 2011. We also identified discrepancies that  call into question the reliability of the data reported to OFPP. For  example, DOT’s 2010 plan includes conflicting information on the size of  the acquisition workforce for fiscal year 2009. DOT officials could not  explain the discrepancy. As a result of these limitations, we concluded  that the aggregate data DOT reported in its plans was not sufficiently  accurate or complete for assessing changes in the size of the acquisition  workforce or certification rates over time.
To assess the reliability of the data DOT used to prepare its 2012 plan,  we compared the OA-level data we received from the Office of the Senior  Procurement Executive with data we received from the OAs. We  compared the data and interviewed OA officials regarding the sources  and methods they used to compile the data. We identified inconsistencies  in how the data were reported by the OAs. These inconsistencies affect  the reliability of the department’s aggregate data, but we determined that  the OA-level data were sufficiently reliable to make qualitative  observations about staffing and certification challenges at the individual  OAs.
To determine the extent to which the Office of the Senior Procurement  Executive has provided support and oversight for acquisition workforce  planning and management, we reviewed relevant OFPP policy and  guidance, as well as DOT policy, guidance, and acquisition workforce  plans for 2010, 2011, and 2012. We interviewed DOT procurement and  human resources officials to obtain their views on their roles and  responsibilities. We also reviewed budget and strategic planning  documents from the Office of the Secretary and the Office of the Senior  Procurement Executive and interviewed officials from the five OAs with  the greatest fiscal year 2011 procurement spending to discuss their  approaches to strategic acquisition workforce planning and to obtain their  views about the level of support and oversight from the Office of the  Senior Procurement Executive. Based on this review, we identified Senior  Procurement Executive responsibilities to support and oversee acquisition  workforce planning and management and determined the extent to which  these functions are performed. We compared Office of the Senior  Procurement Executive strategic workforce planning efforts to leading  practices for workforce planning identified by GAO and others. We also  reviewed the Federal Aviation Administration’s acquisition workforce  plans for 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012 and interviewed officials to discuss  their approach workforce planning.
We conducted this performance audit from March 2012 to January 2013  in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.  Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain  sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our  findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that  the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and  conclusions based on our audit objectives.

Appendix II: Comments from the Department of Transportation

Appendix III: GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments

	GAO Contact

	Staff Acknowledgments

In addition to the contact named above, W. William Russell, Assistant  Director; MacKenzie Cooper; Danielle Greene; Julia Kennon; Jean K.  Lee; Steven Lozano; Angie Nichols-Friedman; Carol Petersen; and Marie  Ahearn also made key contributions to the report.

Summary:
Why GAO Did This Study

With $5.6 billion in procurement spending in fiscal year 2011, DOT relies on its acquisition workforceincluding contracting and program management staffto negotiate and administer contracts and manage large-scale acquisition programs. Having sufficient numbers of adequately trained acquisition professionals is critical to ensuring maximum value and benefit to the department.
In a fiscal year 2012 Senate appropriations bill report, GAO was directed to assess (1) DOTs efforts to identify acquisition workforce needs, and (2) the Office of the Secretary of Transportations role in providing oversight and support for acquisition workforce planning and management. GAO reviewed DOTs acquisition workforce plans for 2010, 2011, and 2012 along with supporting documentation, and interviewed agency officials on how the data were collected and used. The primary focus was on five OAs that accounted for 92 percent of DOT procurement spending in fiscal year 2011.

What GAO Found

The Department of Transportation (DOT) lacks sufficient and reliable data to fully identify its acquisition workforce needs and assess progress in addressing shortfalls over time. Over the last 3 years, the Office of the Senior Procurement Executivethe office within the Office of the Secretary of Transportation responsible for department-wide acquisition workforce managementhas submitted acquisition workforce plans that reported progress in increasing the size of the workforce and the number of personnel certified to meet education, training, and experience requirements. However, GAO identified data limitations due to a lack of internal controls to maintain, compare, and reconcile the data compiled from DOTs 11 operating administrations (OA), and determined that the department-level data were not sufficient to assess progress over time. For example, DOT did not maintain the data it used to prepare the 2010 and 2011 plans and in some cases the data were also not available from the OAs. By contrast, GAO obtained the data DOT used to prepare the 2012 plan, compared it with data from the OAs, and interviewed OA officials about the sources and methods they used to report the data. GAO found inconsistencies in how the OAs reported their data that affect the reliability of the departments aggregate data, but determined that the OA-level data were sufficiently reliable to make observations about staffing challenges and certification shortfalls at the individual OAs. Specifically, GAO found that 4 of the 11 OAs would need to replace 50 percent or more of their contract specialists by the end of fiscal year 2013 to meet staffing targets. In addition, some OAs reported low certification rates for program/project managers and contracting officers representatives, which increases the risk of DOT programs not receiving appropriate oversight.
DOT lacks the strategic focus and oversight needed to ensure that the department can meet its acquisition workforce goals. Federal policy requires agencies to conduct strategic planning to identify short- and long-term needs and plans to address them. The Office of the Senior Procurement Executive relies on the OAs to conduct acquisition workforce planning, but has not provided oversight or support to help ensure that they collect and maintain consistent data or use it to develop strategies to address workforce goals. Officials from the Senior Procurement Executives office stated that they do not monitor the OAs acquisition workforce data throughout the year and that their capacity to direct planning efforts is limited in part because they do not have the staff needed to perform oversight. Instead, officials stated that the office provides a focal point for coordination among the OAs, approves certifications, and provides information on training opportunities. According to leading practices identified in prior GAO work, agencies should link workforce goals to budget formulation to ensure that requests are adequate to implement workforce strategies. The Office of the Senior Procurement Executive has taken steps to align workforce plans with its strategic goals and budget, but given the challenges with maintaining reliable data, lacks a sound baseline for assessing progress or for making a business case for directing resources or management attention to OAs that may face the greatest workforce risks. Until DOT addresses these issues, the department faces substantial risk that the workforce will not have the capacity or skills needed to effectively manage the departments acquisitions.

What GAO Recommends

GAO recommends that the Secretary of Transportation take steps to improve DOTs ability to address workforce needs, such as improving internal controls for acquisition workforce data and providing guidance to ensure that the OAs collect and report workforce data consistently. DOT acknowledged past data and coordination challenges and generally concurred with our recommendations. DOT also stated it now has the management framework needed to effectively monitor and develop the acquisition workforce.