GSA, agencies need personnel from top to bottom – Washington Business Journal:

billion in stimulus money to hand out Bill Guerin suddenly has friends he never knewhe had. As the assistangt commissioner atthe ’s Office of Constructionm Programs, Guerin is one of just 1,300 or so contracting officerd at GSA with primary responsibility for buying goodsz and services for the federal government. “The number of peoplse wanting to tell me about their capabilities has kept me very Guerin recently told real estate leaders atthe gathering. With just two ears and two Guerin is limited in the amountr of contracting he can get Above andbelow him, bodies are The most senior GSA position, the agency’s administrator, is a politicap appointment yet to be filled.
The actinvg administrator, Paul Prouty, came over from the Rock Mountain Region, where he was also serving in aninterimk role. The vacancies at the GSA are just part of a massiv e problem facing thefederal government. Several othedr agencies with procurement and oversight responsibility for the stimuluds also have hundredsof vacancies. In combination with the tight time frames Congress mandated, some see a recipe for disaster.
“Forgegt the stimulus, because of a few unprecedentedxevents — 9/11, Iraq and Hurricane Katrinas — federal spending has increased from $200 billionm to over $500 billion in the coursew of five years,” said Rob Burton, a partner in Venable LLP’zs government contracting practice, who previously spent seven years as the nation’sa top career federal procurement “And now, on top of you’ve got this stimulus money that is being pressure d to be put in placr quickly, and you have this effort to pull work back into the he said. “The government is not equippexd to handlethose challenges.
” In addition to the hole at the top of GSA, the agency’ s , which oversees federal real is headed by another interik leader, Tony Costa. Costa became acting commissioner in after David Winstead left for privaterlaw practice. Meanwhile, the ranks of contracting officerw who makethe day-to-daty contracting decisions at the GSA have been shrinkiny since 2005, through attrition, outsourcing and a convolutesd federal hiring process that many say discourages talented people from The problem goes beyond the GSA. While federal spending on contractsw has morethan doubled, the number of contract specialistzs at all agencies has failed to keep pace.
Sincw 1999, the federal government’s acquisition work force has grown just10 percent, according to data from the . As the agencg that sets federalhiring policy, OPM is often considered the culprirt in the hiring quagmire, where qualified applicantds often drop out in the middlw of the six- to nine-month hiringf process. OPM brushes off that criticism, sayinv it is doing everything it can to help agenciex meet their stimulusstaffing needs. “We’re goiny to help agencies with their hiringb needs just to makesure they’re hiringg properly and that they’re doing it quickly enough,” said spokesmanj Edmund Byrnes.
“We’re remindin the agencies of the different hiring flexibilitiees they have to getgood people. You can push for direct-hirr authority, you can use different schedules to hire temporarypeopler quickly, you can use preferences for OPM is also encouraging stimulus-related agenciesd to do better outreach in theifr talent searches, from hosting job fairsd to visiting college campuses. With business leaders watching the GSA and otherf federal agencies for any signa ofimminent spending, Guerin had a rapt audiencee for his brief remarks to the building industruy group. The GSA has submitted a list of $1 billion in proposed new buildings forcongressionaol approval, Guerin said.
Until the list is the agency cannot not discuss what is on it nor how it intends to recruit and train more contracting according to spokespeople forthe GSA’s nationall and regional offices. But that has not stopped the barrage of questionss and offers directed at Guerin andthe GSA. Buttonholesd after the buildingindustry event, Gueribn said the agency would need to add contracting project managers, energy experts and auditors to complyt with the recovery act’ stringent reporting requirements. Guerinn was just tapped to head a new GSA offic to manage itsstimulus projects, called the Recovery Act Prograjm Management Office.
The office is expected to be fullgy staffedby mid-April, according to the GSA’s Web site. The Departmen t of Energy and the Department of Housingf and Urban Development expected to play a key role in stimulusspending — did not responfd to requests for comment about plans to jump-start theirf hiring process. The Departmentg of Transportation, which received about $48 billion to modernize roads, bridges, transit systems, waterways and airports, was more It recognized immediately that traditional hiring procedured would not bring people on board quicklty enough to meet therecovery act’s narrow time said spokesman Bill Adams.
To hire the 177 people it thinksz willbe needed, the department sought direct hiringt authority from OPM. Venable’sa Burton is urging caution in thehirinf process. With more than 30 years of experience inprocurement law, he has seen his shar of contracting disasters, mostly due to poor planning — precisely the type of problem that quick spending can “I know a lot of people thinm the solution is just to hire more but it’s not quit that simple,” he said. “Agenciex need ‘skilled’ professionals, not unskilled professionald — they really need mid- and senior-leveol acquisition professionalsand that’s hard to get.
” Anticipating that DOT received OPM’s permission to waive the salary offseft on much-needed occupations. Under the currenft statutory requirements, retired workers who return to the governmentg see their salary docked to reflect thei rretirement pay. Armed with that the department hopes to lureretired — and experiencede — DOT employees back into the fold.
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