Carrying the Reform Banner

hen Deidre Lee was confirmed as the eighth administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy in July, she joined an elite group of outstanding public servants who have held that position before her. (Oh, by the way, did I mention I was the sixth administrator?)

All of them have shared the opportunity to make one of government's most important administrative functions work better.

A National Contract Management Association Fellow, Lee strongly supports efforts to improve procurement professionalism. She has earned the title of Certified Professional Contracts Manager and academic degrees in business and public administration. Lee's path to the Office of Management and Budget's Office of Federal Procurement Policy has taken her from buying supplies and spare parts at Air Force bases in Okinawa, Boston and Utah, to procuring data systems and shuttle orbiters for NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. Lee has accumulated a wealth of knowledge about the nuts and bolts of the procurement business.

Position of Influence

In Washington, as NASA's associate administrator for procurement since 1993, Lee has been in the forefront of executive branch reform efforts. From her new vantage point as administrator, she has an opportunity not only to assess progress across the federal government but also to influence the speed and direction of change.

Lee's sense of where we are and what needs to be done is in line with those who have been pressing for a more streamlined, results-oriented acquisition process. In a recent interview, she pointed out that many have stepped up to the challenge of getting the legislative, regulatory and procedural changes necessary to open the paths for reform. Electronic commerce, performance-based service contracting, use of multiple award contracts, commercial item acquisition approaches and greater emphasis on past performance are some of the key elements of this new environment.

However, in Lee's view, the paths of progress are not well worn. "Spotty" is how she characterizes reforms implemented to date. Her successes and innovations at NASA provide good evidence of the approaches and projects she will likely undertake in her new role.

While at NASA, Lee worked closely with industry and the small business community to initiate an acquisition Internet service for notifying contractors of pending solicitations. Through this interaction, she was able to devise a system that provided all the information needed to make this an effective, user-friendly communications vehicle. Lee also developed a shared-savings clause to reward good contractor performance. Also, she put her own twist on using past performance measures by converting them from an annual written assessment letter to a day-to-day contract management tool.

Challenge Lies in Execution

Each of these efforts shows an inclination toward action as well as recognition of the importance of partnering with industry. I would expect to see the same approach in Lee's new position. Not surprising, she sees implementation of reforms as her major challenge. Lee recognizes that nothing happens without strong leaders to carry the reform banner and is committed to setting up an effective Federal Procurement Council (á la the Chief Information Officers and Chief Financial Officers councils). This would be the vehicle to set priorities, get buy-in, improve communications and leverage resources. To make such a council work, Lee must deal with the widely disparate levels of authority enjoyed by various acquisition officials. Defense and NASA procurement officials, for example, occupy much higher positions in the agency hierarchy than those in most other agencies do.

Lee plans to carry her NASA efforts to improve government-industry communications to her new governmentwide role, while also emphasizing the need for contract specialists to become "business brokers," not procurement process people. "You can write a great contract, but if it's for the wrong product, what do you have?" she says. As in so many other aspects of the new government contracting and management environment, outcomes or results, not processes, are the objectives.

Defining the measurement systems needed to assess these outcomes will be another major challenge. It's an issue everyone in government is facing as the Government Performance and Results Act pushes agencies to show how well they are meeting their goals.

Understanding the mission and recognizing that acquisition is only a tool to accomplish it is important. For Defense, it's figuring out how best to serve the war fighter. For NASA, it may be supporting space and aeronautics research and development. Working jointly to that end with agency program officials and with industry becomes the real work of today's contracting official. Programs must be successful in order to accomplish the agency mission. "Acquisition excellence needs to be coupled with program excellence" to get that result, Lee says. The contracting community is essential to this effort, but as one part of a much broader set of resources.

Lee's biggest hurdle in accomplishing these changes? "Time. You don't get the word out and implement overnight," she says. Let's hope that as a result of her leadership, we can soon replace "spotty" with "sweeping" when describing the changes.

Allan V. Burman, a former Office of Federal Procurement Policy administrator, is president of Jefferson Solutions in Washington.