The Congress and others have been addressing the question of how to strengthen the acquisition workforce since 1974 when the OFPP was created to establish governmentwide procurement policies for executive agencies. One of the primary responsibilities of this office and its Federal Acquisition Institute (FAI) is to strengthen acquisition workforce training. The concern about the quality of the acquisition workforce deepened in the 1990s, as it became clear that the government was experiencing significant contracting failures partly because it lacked skilled personnel to manage and oversee contracts. There was also concern that program managers and other personnel integral to the success of the acquisition process were only marginally involved with the contracts. Two of the most significant steps taken in this regard were the passage of the Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act in 1990 and the Clinger-Cohen Act in 1996. The Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act, among other things, provided specific guidance on DOD’s acquisition workforce definition. The Clinger-Cohen Act required civilian agencies to establish acquisition workforce definitions. Those definitions were to include contract and procurement specialist positions and other positions “in which significant acquisition-related functions are performed.” The Clinger-Cohen Act also required civilian agencies to collect standardized information on their acquisition workforce and establish education, training, and experience requirements that are “comparable to those established for the same or equivalent positions” in DOD and the military services. Table 1 provides more details on this act and other legislation and federal agency initiatives. OFPP Policy Letter 97-01 directs executive agencies to establish core training for entry and advancement in the acquisition workforce. Agencies normally establish specific core training required to meet the standards for certification in each career field in their acquisition workforce (e.g., contracting officers, CORs, and COTRs). For contracting officers, agencies usually establish several warrant levels, with specified contracting authority for each level. Agencies issue permanent warrants only to contracting officers who have completed the core training required for each warrant level and who have the necessary work experience and formal education. Because contracting officers’ warrant levels generally correspond to their grade levels, employees’ career development and advancement is dependent on attending and passing required core training courses. The OFPP policy letter also established continuing education requirements for contract specialists and contracting officers. DOD includes a wide variety of disciplines—ranging from contracting, to technical, to financial, to program staff—in its acquisition workforce definition, but civilian agencies have employed narrower definitions that are largely limited to staff involved in awarding and administering contracts. Having a broader definition is important because it is one method to facilitate agencies’ efforts to ensure that training reaches all staff integral to the success of a contract. While most civilian agencies acknowledge that the acquisition process requires the efforts of multiple functions and disciplines beyond those in traditional contracting offices, few have broadened their definitions of the acquisition workforce to include them. Officials at two agencies we reviewed said that they had not broadened their definitions because officials responsible for managing the acquisition workforce did not have management responsibility for or control of the training of individuals in offices other than their own. DOD is required by the Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act to include, at a minimum, all acquisition-related positions in 11 specified functional areas in its definition of its acquisition workforce. It is also required to include acquisition-related positions in “management headquarters activities and in management headquarters support activities.” Therefore, DOD’s acquisition workforce includes contracting, program, technical, budget, financial, logistics, scientific, and engineering personnel. DOD uses a methodology, known as the Refined Packard methodology,to identify its acquisition workforce personnel. Using the Refined Packard methodology, DOD now includes personnel in its acquisition workforce from three categories: (1) specific occupations that are presumed to be performing acquisition-related work no matter what organization the employee is in, (2) a combination of an employee’s occupational series and the organization in which the employee works, and (3) specific additions and deletions to the first two categories. DOD is currently coding the positions and employees identified by the Refined Packard methodology into its official personnel systems. DOD components and the military services’ estimate that the number of personnel included in the acquisition workforce will expand when the coding is completed in October 2002. All the civilian agencies we reviewed include personnel in the contract specialist and purchasing agent job series as specified by the Clinger- Cohen Act. All agencies also include contracting officers and three include CORs and COTRs as required in OFPP’s policy enumerating acquisition- related positions. Every civilian agency includes additional positions in which contracting functions are performed, such as property disposal or procurement clerks. However, only VA and DOE include positions in which acquisition-related functions are performed (i.e., program managers). Table 2 shows how the agencies defined their acquisition workforces. Agencies are aware of the need to expand their definitions to include all positions in which “significant acquisition-related functions are performed,” as required by the Clinger-Cohen Act. To assist agencies in this effort, OFPP Policy Letter 97-01 identified acquisition workforce positions, in addition to contracting and purchasing specialists, to include contracting officers, CORs, and COTRs. Furthermore, OFPP Policy Letter 97-01 stated that the Administrator would “consult with the agencies in the identification of other acquisition related positions.” All agencies include positions other than those enumerated in the Clinger-Cohen Act and OFPP policy, and GSA plans to do so. Specifically: VA includes program managers and procurement clerks in its definition. DOE includes program managers and property managers in its definition. HHS and NASA include procurement clerks in their definitions. GSA is identifying and including other acquisition-related positions in its acquisition workforce and expects to include program managers and other positions in the future, but GSA has not established a firm time frame. NASA asserted that managing a much wider range of acquisition personnel, including “other equivalent positions,” such as CORs and COTRs, would be much more difficult than current practice because agency managers responsible for acquisition workforce training did not have authority over personnel in offices other than theirs to require they take specific training courses. However, HHS, which has CORs and COTRs (which it refers to as project officers) not under control of the acquisition office, established regulations requiring the head of each contracting activity ensure their CORs and COTRs receive specified training. In addition, DOE, which has similar oversight concerns, has established an “umbrella” directive governing acquisition career development. Two offices, the Acquisition Career Development Program office and the Project Management Career Development Program office, monitor the training of employees in their respective career fields. Every agency we reviewed has established specific training requirements for each position identified in their acquisition workforce. The Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act and the Clinger-Cohen Act established similar career management requirements, including education, experience, and training requirements employees must meet to qualify for each acquisition workforce position. These requirements are further defined, for DOD, by DOD regulations and other guidance, and for the civilian agencies by OFPP and the agencies’ own regulations. Two agencies also established training requirements for acquisition-related positions not formally included in their acquisition workforce definitions. The DAU develops curricula, approved by the Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition, Technology & Logistics), that include descriptions of the education, experience, and core training required to meet the standards for certification in each acquisition career field. In addition, DAU offers assignment-specific training. Annually, advisors from each DOD career field determine whether certification standards and assignment-specific training requirements should be updated and whether training curricula are current. Any changes must be approved by the Director of Acquisition Education, Training, and Career Development before they are published in the DAU catalog. The DAU curriculum includes courses identified by the Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition, Technology & Logistics) as integral to the education and training of personnel in identified positions. These courses are intended to provide unique acquisition knowledge for specific assignments, jobs, or positions; maintain proficiency; and remain current with legislation, regulation, and policy. They also cover topics such as program management, systems acquisition, construction, and advanced contract pricing. OFPP’s FAI develops training and career development programs for civilian agency acquisition workforce personnel. Specifically, FAI developed the contracting and procurement curriculum for the acquisition workforce, worked closely with DAU in its course development, and coordinated with colleges and universities to identify and develop education programs for the acquisition workforce. In addition, FAI is developing several Web-based courses for various acquisition personnel. All DOD agencies follow the DAU curriculum. Some civilian agencies, including NASA and DOE, also follow the DAU curriculum for the contracting and purchasing functions. Other agencies, including GSA and VA, have developed training programs and courses that follow the curriculum established by FAI. While HHS has awarded contracts to teach courses for its own acquisition workforce, the curriculum and course contents are modeled on those developed by FAI. The civilian agencies we reviewed all had policies describing the education and training requirements for each member of their acquisition workforce. Even when agencies do not include all positions that play a role in their acquisition process in their acquisition workforce, they established education and training requirements for those positions. For instance, NASA and HHS, which do not include COTRs in their acquisition workforce, established training requirements for that position. To ensure training requirements are being met, DOD and the military services use a centralized management information system that is automatically updated with training and personnel data. The civilian agencies use less sophisticated spreadsheet programs to collect and maintain information on the education, training, and continuing education received by their acquisition workforce. At least once a year, each agency collects data from its regional offices and/or contracting components and consolidates the data into its tracking system. Although we obtained data from DOD and the civilian agencies to determine the various elements collected, we did not assess the reliability or adequacy of their systems.