Don’t Expect Dan Gordon to Move Mountains

This is no criticism of the president’s nominee for administrator of OMB’s Office of Federal Procurement Policy. He’s exceptionally well qualified to be the top government procurement policy official, a role that’s been lackluster for several years.

The usual suspects in the acquisition community had been implying for months that if only the position were filled,  reforms could proceed. Now that the position is almost filled, let’s take a deep breath.

So what? At his confirmation hearing this week, Gordon disclosed an agenda that had no surprises. It contained the same hardy perennials that the community has ruminated over for years: grow the acquisition workforce, strengthen acquisition planning, reduce the government’s risk, improve contract oversight, and cut wasteful contract spending.

To play on Hillary Clinton’s book title, it will “take a village” to reform procurement. The energizers are a committed president, an understanding Congress, agencies that give a darn, and an industry that will accommodate some changes.

Unfortunately, the White House procurement reform campaign set itself up with the $40 billion savings bogie. As a result, it is already playing oddly: forcing agencies by rote, and in the exact same proportions, to reduce contract spending and high-risk contract cuts; letting the agencies believe there is an insourcing mandate when there is
none, allowing way too many lobbyists into political posts, and letting the mice play on fair cost comparisons between contractor and government employee costs.

Congress keeps on adding regulations, some of them sensible, some over-reaching (see Alan Chvotkin’s column in the Insider). The agencies, with a few exceptions such as VA, are not buckling down to weeding their weak contracts and gearing up seriously for stronger oversight.

The industry is playing defensive ball after trying to get along with the new administration on every issue. That’s probably unavoidable.

So look for Dan Gordon to do more than fill an empty chair. He can coordinate policy better, ride herd on the agencies that are weaker in contracting, and open up a more effective dialog with industry that many in government still hesitate to
do. He can also interpret acquisition to the White House, which still is not sufficiently aware of how reform can actually be accomplished. That alone would be a great contribution. But moving mountains? That’s not Dan Gordon’s job.