Acquisition chiefs brace for a busy year

It is either the best of times to be in the acquisition management field, or the worst. Chief procurement executives are being called upon to spend unprecedented amounts of taxpayer dollars from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in an abbreviated time period - an epic task the Obama administration believes will help turn around the entire economy.

The Recovery Act comes with its share of risk. During the next several years, agencies will award as much as $60 billion in recovery contracts, most often with an undersized and overburdened acquisition workforce that has languished for more than a decade. If the pressures of executing the largest stimulus in government history were not enough, chief acquisition officers understand that hordes of journalists, watchdogs and skeptics will be vigilantly studying their decisions. One embarrassing misstep could send CAO careers into a tailspin.

Despite the mounting pressure, procurement leaders are anxious to tackle the challenge, and they welcome an opportunity to shine a spotlight on their field. "In some ways the Recovery Act has raised the level of importance of having the acquisition professional involved in strategic decision-making," says Debra Sonderman, chief procurement officer at the Interior Department. "We've talked for years about looking at ourselves as business managers. . . . Those organizations that are bringing their acquisition folks into the process early are seeing the fruits of that in being able to plan effectively for how they're going to roll projects out and ensure we meet the requirements" of the Recovery Act.

In the June 15 issue of Government Executive, Robert Brodsky and Elizabeth Newell explore chief acquisition officers' growing workload. Click here to read the full story.