Department of Homeland Security: A Strategic Approach Is Needed to Better Ensure the Acquisition Workforce Can Meet Mission Needs

DHS concurred with this recommendation, and stated in its agency comments that the department had developed an interim definition that included contract specialists, program managers, and contracting officer's technical representatives. However, GAO noted that it was necessary to expand this definition further in order to guide acquisition workforce planning efforts. Since that time, DHS stated in its March 2010 Acquisition Human Capital Plan submitted to the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) the specific career fields that it plans to formally add to the definition. The department has also formally added one additional career field to the definition through the issuance of certification standards in April 2010 and has drafted certification standards for three additional career fields.

DHS concurred with this recommendation and stated that the department planned to expand its Acquisition Professional Career Program (APCP) to include career fields other than contract specialists. In 2009, DHS implemented plans to expand its APCP class to include participants in program management and systems engineering. DHS also hired a recruitment coordinator to assist components with the hiring of acquisition professionals other than contract specialists. DHS has determined that it will not specifically seek approval to expand direct hire authority or reemployed annuitant authority to career fields other than contract specialists, but has instead developed a briefing to educate hiring managers on how to use existing human capital flexibilities to hire acquisition workforce professionals.

DHS concurred with this recommendation and included implementation plans for eight ongoing acquisition workforce initiatives in its Fiscal Year 2012 Acquisition Human Capital Plan. Specifically, these implementation plans include implementation steps, time lines for completion, intended outcomes, and evaluation strategies, and identify officials responsible for implementing the initiative.

DHS concurred with this recommendation, and has established a strategic human capital planning initiative to improve coordination between CPO, the components, CHCO, and other stakeholders to develop DHS's Fiscal Year 2013 Acquisition Workforce Strategic Human Capital Plan. The three stage initiative, which is to be implemented throughout 2012, calls for interviews with component, CHCO, and CPO leadership and working groups with staff from the same entities to gather input for the plan, to be followed by continued communication with stakeholders as the plan is developed, implemented, and evaluated.

DHS concurred with this recommendation and in May 2011, began using the Federal Acquisition Institute Training Application System Version 2.0 to collect and track data on the department's acquisition workforce. DHS requires that members of the acquisition workforce, including but not limited to personnel in the following acquisition positions: Program Management, Contracting, Contracting Officer Representative, Life Cycle Logistics Management, Cost Estimating, Test and Evaluation, Systems Engineering and Program Financial Management, use the system to create an account and profile, build an individual development plan and track their progress, and develop, submit and track their acquisition certification packages. DHS anticipates that the data from the system will allow it to more accurately forecast annual training requirements, better identify the acquisition workforce, build training and certification metrics, and budget for training and certification required courses. DHS plans to begin collecting data on acquisition support contractors once a proposed change to the Federal Acquisition Regulation related to service contract reporting requirements is finalized.