Who Is Part of the Acquisition Workforce?
Hello everyone, awhile back I posted a several blogs on my IPT's quest to define who exactly in my organization was part of the acquisition workforce. We actually did come up with an answer, one that was mostly accepted by our higher headquarters (DHS).
I'll post the exact definition that DHS has tentatively agreed to later in the week, but first, a question to our audience: who, in your organization, is part of your acquisition workforce? Is it just the program managers, contracting officers, and COR's/COTR's? Does it include the engineering and logistics folks? What about IT? Or the administrative support for the program/office?
Let me know your thoughts...
Dan
Tags: acquisition, contracting, definition, management, program, workforce
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Candace Riddle on -
Hey Dan,
I work for NIGP, The Institute for Public Procurement. We support mostly state and local procurement professionals. As a matter of best practice we usually say that that acquisition workforce includes the procurement officers and anyone who has delegated purchasing authority, or who is involved in the procurement process. To back that up further, anyone with delegated purchasing authority (regardless of dollar limits) should have ongoing formal training. Take that even further to include ethics training for all involved in the process, and an outreach program for suppliers that includes ethics training and "how to do business" guides/ advice.
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Permalink Reply by Joe Williams on -
I'll add my 2 cents to what Candace said above. Primarily, I see it as those who have purchasing authority and can obligate the Government (I equate that to Contracting Officers and COTRs). Secondarily are those who can influence purchasing, such as what I do in my role defining contracting strategies, and other technical representatives in the technical organization, IT, Safety, Property, and other logistics areas, upon who I depend to create contracting strategies. All of us have to submit financial disclosures for ethics reasons, so because of all of this I see us as part of the acquisition workforce, too.
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Permalink Reply by Paul Mayo on -
DOD has an Acquisition Corp.. and one gets a level 1 thru 3 after going thru all the training. There are a lot of career fields that are in the AC... and specific positions marked as AC positions.
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Permalink Reply by GovLoop on -
Hmm...I guess it would start with the purpose of the definition. If it is for who needs training, who should be classified in a job series, or just broader theoretical.
As a former program manager, I didn't consider myself part of the acquisition workforce. But I knew I needed to get acquisition basic training. I considered myself part of IT or PM workforceTo me there's core acq workforce - COs, COR/COTRs
And then there are others that are important as either the customer (who gets the goods/services procured) such as PM. The problems with this part is it can go really broad as most government employees are involved in some purchasing process whether training, office supplies, travel cards, etc.
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Permalink Reply by Jaime Gracia on -
The question requires a more high-level approach to the mission of "acquisition." Many federal agencies have trouble defining these roles, as they are more than just 1102s. In fact, I would argue that acquisition workforce is a multi-disciplined and multi-sectored workforce, which includes program managers, contracting, and also contractors supporting this mission (blended-workforce). The current definition is too narrowly defined to be of benefit, let alone create data-drivedn human capital plans and resourcing strategies to support these functions.
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