Senators proclaim Gordon 'most qualified' to be OFPP administrator

Dan Gordon offered little in the way of his priorities or vision for federal procurement during his nomination hearing Tuesday to be administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy.

He promised members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that he would educate himself and look into many of their concerns.

What Gordon did provide the committee is probably the most qualified OFPP administrator candidate in nearly a decade.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), chairman of the committee, called the acting general counsel of the Government Accountability Office one of the most noncontroversial candidates the committee has ever seen.

"The sheer size of contracting in the government puts a lot of pressure on this office," Lieberman says. "I'm grateful to President Obama for turning to a real expert in this field."

OFPP has been without a permanent administrator since September 2008 when Paul Dennett stepped down, and has seen its share of administrators come and go during the Bush administration.

Lawmakers hold high hope for Gordon to affect real change in the acquisition environment.

"It is seldom that a nominee for OFPP has come before this committee at such as critical time," says Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), ranking member of the committee. "The acquisition process is under stress and OFPP plays a central role in shaping the policies and practices agencies need to carry out their mission."

Some observers say Gordon could be confirmed by the Senate by late November.

Gordon, for his part, followed the script the Obama administration has laid out around acquisition since March when the President issued his first memo to improve federal contracting.

Gordon, a 17-year career civil servant, mentioned the need to strengthen the acquisition workforce, but offered little in the way of specifics.

"We need to focus our attention on developing an acquisition workforce - including contracting officers' technical representatives and program managers, as well as contracting officers and contract specialists -- that allows us to meet our mission goals and deliver value to the public," he says. "If confirmed, I will strengthen our commitment to their development and training and ensure they have the knowledge and tools necessary to excel."

Lieberman says one such tool could be a governmentwide contracting writing system. Gordon says there would be some advantage to having a uniform and consistent approach to writing contracts.

Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) asked Gordon to provide the committee an evaluation of those agencies that lack the capacity to manage their contractor workforces in the first six months he's in his position.

"Too often agencies farm out the acquisition and really don't have the people in house to make sure that the people they have farmed the work out to are doing the job they are supposed to be doing, he says. "I would like to know which agencies need to bring some folks back in house or develop the capacity in house to get the job done."

Another area Gordon discussed was the need to reduce high risk contracts and save money.

He says applying technology to make the acquisition system more transparent would help discourage the use of high risk contracting approach such as cost reimbursement and time-and-materials.

Gordon adds that improving acquisition planning and strengthening acquisition planning are among his other priorities.

The one area where Gordon did offer some more specifics was around multiple award contracts.

Collins expressed concern over the duplication of these contracts across the government.

Gordon says he would look at this issue because it flies in the face of the administration's push for strategic sourcing.

"I've heard considerable concern from both government and industry over the duplication and maybe agencies have gone too far with the use of these contracts," he says.

Collins also recommended OFPP take a close look at how agencies are using blanket purchase agreements. A recent GAO report found that many agencies did not ask for or receive discount pricing under the BPA.

Robert Burton, a former deputy OFPP administrator, says Gordon could make some immediate changes around MACs.

"The government needs to manage these better and I do think some of the guidance should be mandatory and should be in Federal Acquisition Regulations," he says. "There also should be a mandatory standard agreement between agencies who use these contracts. When I was at OFPP, we recommended a model one and encouraged agencies to use it, but we didn't mandate it."

Burton says one of Gordon's biggest priorities will be the insourcing of contractor positions back into the government.

Interestingly, this issue did not come up at the hearing. Lawmakers did ask about the definition of inherently governmental, which is a major piece to the insourcing discussion.

Burton says insourcing will be a major way agencies can meet the administration's goal to cut seven percent of their procurement spending over the next two years.

"The only way the administration can do that is to aggressively insource functions," Burton says. "It is a very ambitious goal given that procurement spending naturally is going up at quick pace and when you add the Recovery Act, which put $60 billion extra dollars into the system, it's a tough challenge for Dan."

Burton adds that the debate over the definition of inherently governmental will not be as difficult as many people think. Instead, he says, defining critical and essential agency functions will be much more difficult and could end up being politically driven.

Lawmakers also asked Gordon whether he thinks OFPP has enough employees.

Collins and Voinovich expressed concern that 12 full-time workers doesn't seem like enough to handle the oversight and policy setting functions of the office.

"In many ways, [OFPP staffing levels] mirror the problems…in the overall federal acquisition workforce," Collins says. "OFPP has broad responsibilities for procurement across the federal government, and a staff of roughly a dozen is simply inadequate. This lack of staffing may explain why OFPP has become increasingly reactive to procurement failures--instead of working proactively to prevent them from occurring in the first place."

Gordon says he would need to look more closely at OFPP's staffing levels and would work with Office of Management and Budget deputy director for management Jeffrey Zients on this issue if necessary.

Burton says OFPP needs more people.

"I do think that OFPP needs to have increased resources, especially dedicated to the acquisition workforce issue," Burton says. "They could have an entire office at OMB working just on the workforce issues, and it's not a bad idea. Leadership must come from the top and there has to be enough resources to address that problem."

Burton says this is especially true because OMB keeps giving agencies new reporting requirements and OFPP has to have the staff to analyze the work.

"One thing that is unique here is that Dan is inheriting a lot of guidance out on street since Obama took office," he says."When the President issued his government contracting memo March 4, it was the first time a president did that. This administration is focused on improving the acquisition system and Dan has got to have the resources to execute on some very ambitious goals."

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On the Web:

Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee - Nomination hearing of Dan Gordon

FederalNewsRadio - OMB's Zients stakes out acquisition reform plans

FederalNewsRadio - Insourcing debate heats up over agencies stealing employees

FederalNewsRadio - Analysis: GAO's Dan Gordon nominated as OFPP Administrator

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