Marketplace

New Marching Orders

May 1, 2002

Tight deadlines are pushing the new Transportation Security Administration toward innovative, results-oriented contracting approaches.

he new Transportation Security Administration will be a radical departure in federal governance. Its mission-securing all modes of transportation-will be done mostly by federal employees, not contractors.

Other agencies created in the past 30 years, such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Education and Energy departments, were structured to accomplish their missions mostly through contractor support. Ninety percent of Energy's work, for example, is done by contractors. Among these agencies' biggest challenges is taking full advantage of private sector expertise. They must develop the right contracting vehicles and then oversee the work done by contractors. In contrast, the TSA will rely heavily on its own employees to carry out its business. Rather than being overseers, agency workers will be the doers.

With a staff of more than 30,000 in baggage screeners alone, the new Transportation agency will be larger than the FBI, Customs Service and Border Patrol combined. Its duties will include "creating a new federal airport security force, an expanded federal air marshal program, the deployment and creation of new screening technologies, administrative and support staff, and high-tech researchers, as well as a host of other new improvements in aviation and transportation security," says Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta. Even though federal workers will perform key TSA missions, such as baggage screening, the agency will still need support from the private sector. The 2001 Aviation and Transportation Security Act requires each checked bag at the nation's 429 airports to be screened by explosive detection equipment by the end of 2002. Cutting edge procurement practices will be critical to meeting that ambitious schedule.The urgency of setting up the TSA and meeting legislative requirements might actually work to the agency's advantage. The tight schedule is pushing the agency toward innovative, results-oriented contracting approaches that are central to the president's management agenda. For example, the TSA is seeking a prime contractor to help the agency meet the December 2002 screening equipment deadline. Rather than taking the traditional approach of laying out all the details of how the work should be done, the TSA has asked firms to propose a full solution. The prime contractor will be expected to perform the following functions:

Purchase and coordinate the supply of needed equipment.
Manage the installation of the equipment at airports.
Provide support for screener training.
Manage maintenance services.

Richard Lieber, contracting officer for the TSA, is trying to ensure that small disadvantaged firms also will have an opportunity to perform some of the agency's work. Subcontracting goals for the screening equipment project include:

40 percent to small businesses.
5 percent to small disadvantaged businesses.
5 percent to women-owned businesses.
3 percent to small businesses owned by disabled veterans.

As in similar types of large-scale procurements, the agency will pay particular attention to firms' past performance in handling similar requirements and to the resources available to them. A key distinction with the equipment screening contract, though, is the magnitude of this nationwide task.For the equipment screening contract, to be awarded in May, the TSA used market research to identify likely prime contractors. Rather than following the normal open competitive process, the TSA justified this limited competition with its tight deadline. Then the agency announced an open invitation for other potential prime contractors and subcontractors to submit brief statements describing how they would perform the work. The agency shared subcontractor statements with the primes to maximize the opportunity for small business participation. By allowing potential bidders to focus on results, performance metrics, and contracting approaches, the TSA will reap the most creative and innovative ideas that industry has to offer.In another departure, the TSA is tapping industry expertise for business advice as it sets up shop. Senior executives from leading firms are working with the TSA to share best practices in procurement, recruiting, metrics and quality, operations and process modeling, training and development, and organizational design and effectiveness. These consultants from Walt Disney World, Fluor, Solectron, Intel, A.T. Kearney, FedEx, Renaissance Hotels and Cisco Systems are subject to conflict of interest and other ethics requirements that preclude their firms from reaping any unfair advantages.The goal is "to bring business processes to government in creating a new agency of the future," says Lieber. "The agency is taking advantage of the acquisition reform legislation of the 1990s while at the same time getting input from corporate America." Given the demanding time frame for meeting the nation's new security challenges, TSA should be applauded for its efforts to bring the best possible expertise to bear on an important mission.

Allan V. Burman, a former Office of Federal Procurement Policy administrator, is president of Jefferson Solutions in Washington. Contact him at aburman@govexec.com.

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