Pressure For More Change

ith $200 billion in purchases at stake, a smooth acquisition process is critical to the government's bottom line. It's also important to Angela Styles, the new administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, whose 2002 agenda will require an agile acquisition workforce.

Styles became the government's procurement chief six months ago, and her top priority is clear: the administration's competitive sourcing initiative. The President highlighted this initiative in a campaign speech in June 2000, and it continues to be a major focus in every one of his management plans. These include the "Blueprint for New Beginnings," a report issued in February that set out the administration's management goals and the budget revisions that followed in the spring.

The competitive sourcing initiative requires agencies to identify their commercial-type activities and then open them up for competition from the private sector. Experience has shown that competition can cut agencies' costs by 20 percent to 30 percent regardless of whether the government or the contractor wins. The focus on results in such competitions parallels that of other Bush initiatives on performance-based service contracting and workforce restructuring.

Styles has been meeting with the senior leaders of key agencies to emphasize the importance of competitive sourcing and get their buy-in. In reviewing agency plans for studying and competing positions, Styles has created color-coded scorecards to measure their progress. Many are full of red dots that indicate a lack of progress, but Styles is optimistic about getting the job done. She believes agencies are taking the initiative seriously.

Commerce has been doing better on its scorecard than most, with a clear plan and preparations for competitions actually under way. But many agencies are still trying to decide what to compete.

In the past, these competitions have been fraught with controversy, given the likelihood of lost jobs and suspicions by contractors about an uneven playing field with federal officials controlling the outcomes and the comparisons. Federal employees, unions, contractors, overseers such as the inspectors general and the General Accounting Office and even members of Congress have all raised objections. Styles' No. 1 challenge will be making this program successful.

Other areas that command Styles' attention relate to the aftermath of Sept. 11 and the pressure for further changes to the acquisition process. The good news about acquisition reforms over the last decade is that they've made the process resilient and responsive to an emergency, Styles says. She points out that in just a matter of days after the attack on the Pentagon, the Defense Department had contracts in place to rebuild the damaged portions of the building. Likewise, the General Services Administration responded quickly and effectively to the Defense Department's needs and to those of federal agencies at ground zero in New York.

Nevertheless, Styles points out that there still hasn't been enough cultural change at some agencies to make the new streamlined acquisition reforms of the last decade work. In fact, some agencies are now seeking exemptions from governmentwide acquisition regulations to avoid any possible procurement-related constraints. Certain agencies have already obtained such leeway, notably the Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Mint. Each such exception erodes the unified front that government strives for in working with industry. That consistency underlies the purposes of the Federal Acquisition Regulation. It's just one more battle that comes with the position of OFPP administrator, and one that Styles knows she must fight.

Styles' effort to assess the gains in acquisition reform colors her views on whether further changes are really needed right now. Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., chairman of the House Government Reform Subcommittee on Technology and Procurement Policy, has developed a legislative proposal for a Services Acquisition Reform Act that would accomplish a number of things, including further streamlining the procurement process.

The legislation would likely come to a vote sometime next spring. At a November hearing, Styles questioned whether enough had been done to test the success of past reforms, before proposing new ones.

To a degree, Styles' notion of stability means doing a better job at institutionalizing the changes already being made. "I think people need a breather," she says. Styles is concerned that some of the efforts to streamline and simplify may have strayed too far from the basic tenets of an effective and fair acquisition process. These tenets demand a transparent, open system where rules and processes are well understood by all and where firms are offered a real chance to compete.

For now, Styles will "wait and see" as she continues to seek data on what has really been achieved so far. And few argue with her philosophy: "We need to assess what's working and what's not."