"Over the next several years, the Obama administration is investing in hiring thousands of new federal procurement officers, the “lifeblood” of acquisition reform, he said."
Assad?? Relation, friend, fellow traveller, habib or other of luminaries like Hafez and Bashar?
And this gentleman is in the US defense establishment??
You guys are *so* done for...
I have heard this over and over again for the last two decades.
There is virtually NO possibility of reform until the following two changes take place:
Internal to DOD - program managers are not allowed to make changes to the program unless they are willing to be DEMOTED. Every time a change is made you do two things - you add to the costs since everything associated with that change has to be reworked; to add months or years to the program's delivery schedule.
External to DOD - Congress critters are NOT ALLOWED to treat acquisition programs as job programs for their districts or shake down contractors.
If you held DOD acquisition “Professionals” to delivering a product, large or small, on time, on budget, and with the required capabilities they would ALWAYS receive referral efficiency reports and no end of tour decorations.
Since 1980 I have seen no “white” programs achieve any one of the goals listed above; much less two; and don't even dream of all three. The last program which did achieve those goals was the C-141 because Lockheed was able to convince everyone to keep their hands off.
A fail system can not be fixed by adding more people; it can only be fixed by changing the ethos.
BTW the “on time, on budget, and with the required capabilities” phrase from above aren't my words - they appear in the AF acquisition managers handbook. They, the “professional” “career” acquisition managers fail but are rewarded. And more such people are going to correct this?
MRA they will!