The Contracting Education Academy

Contracting Academy Logo
  • Home
  • Training & Education
  • Services
  • Contact Us
You are here: Home / Archives for agency mission

October 28, 2019 By cs

How ‘night court’ will impact the Pentagon’s acquisition office

When U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper launched a review this summer of the departmentwide offices known as the “fourth estate,” he made it clear that everything, including cuts to programs and personnel, were on the table.

Two months into that review, clear themes have emerged, according to Pentagon acquisition head Ellen Lord: Esper isn’t looking to cut just to cut, and if offices aren’t tied directly into war-fighting needs, they may no longer belong in the Department of Defense.

Speaking on a panel at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference last Monday, Lord said several of her offices, including the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the Defense Acquisition University, have gone through the review process.

“What we’ve seen there is more, perhaps, a pushing back of certain functions to either services or to intel,” Lord said. “Where I’ve seen a question of actually cutting the workforce is non-true DoD missions. As we’ve gone through a lot of the different areas, if it isn’t war fighting, if it’s something that one of the other agencies or the other departments across government has asked us to do, or if it’s something that should be a function of another department because it’s not about lethality, it will get cut.”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/ausa/2019/10/15/how-night-court-will-impact-the-pentagons-acquisition-office

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: agency mission, DAU, Defense Information Systems Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, DoD, efficiency, government spending, Missile Defense Agency, mission, Pentagon, spending

May 14, 2019 By AMK

Agencies are ‘stepping up’ to prepare the workforce for AI

The government as a whole doesn’t have a set strategy for how they plan to prepare federal workers for the changes that artificial intelligence will cause in their jobs, but agencies are on board with individual efforts to educate and train their own workforces, according to Lynne Parker, assistant director for artificial intelligence at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

“Agencies are stepping up on their own to create opportunities for people to maybe enroll in a short-term learning course where they can gain skills in IT areas or cybersecurity areas or AI areas,” said Parker at an April 18 National Academy of Public Administration event. “Because each agency knows the kinds of skills and the kinds of work that they do, they’re best suited to create these training programs.”

The Trump administration has been adamant that their pursuit of technological advancement is not designed to displace workers that are already at government agencies, but rather to free up time spent on repetitive tasks so they can focus on problems of greater mission importance.

“It’s quite likely that most of us will have some tasks or parts of our jobs that will be impacted by technology, AI, automation and so forth,” Parker said. “I don’t think most of us need to fear completely losing our jobs, but our jobs will change. Now that’s not to say that there aren’t some areas where AI is particularly well-suited that there may be some impact in the sense at the job goes away. Most studies say that is a small percentage.”

Keep reading article at: https://www.federaltimes.com/it-networks/2019/04/18/agencies-are-stepping-up-to-prepare-the-workforce-for-ai/

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: agency mission, AI, artificial intelligence, automation, cybersecurity, information technology, training

February 20, 2015 By AMK

Fixing acquisition: An opportunity lost?

We’ve spent more than a decade ignoring a simple warning of the 2002 Volcker Commission: We are trying to run a 21st century government on a mid-20th century, industrial age business model. A series of surveys of acquisition professionals the Professional Services Council and Grant Thornton have conducted during the last 12 years have consistently flagged the implications of that omission for the federal acquisition workforce. Our 2014 survey, released Jan. 22, shows that the government remains mired in old models. This should be disturbing to anyone who recognizes the critical role acquisition plays in the execution of the government’s missions.

Consider this: In all seven surveys, respondents—who are all government personnel, many from the senior echelons of the workforce—overwhelmingly identified general business acumen, risk identification and mitigation, negotiating skills and knowledge of buying complex technology capabilities as significant gaps in the federal acquisition workforce’s skills. Other, more obvious forces were also identified as inhibiting optimal performance—including the budget insanity that has made it nearly impossible for any agency to optimize operations during the last several years—but the general conclusion has been the same for almost the entire time we have been conducting this survey. Simply put, the workforce does not have the skills needed to do the job as well as everyone wants, and demands. This not a failure of the workforce, but of our collective slowness to recognize the need for major change in how we train, educate and support that workforce.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/contracting/2015/01/fixing-acquisition-opportunity-lost/104070

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: acquisition reform, acquisition training, acquisition workforce, agency mission, business acumen, education, leadership, negotiations, procurement reform, technology, training resources

January 13, 2015 By AMK

GAO forbids funding for disposable flatware

Federal agencies cannot use department funds to buy disposable flatware for employee use, as those items don’t directly support an agency’s mission,according to a recent decision from the Government Accountability Office.

The Department of Commerce instituted a policy in 2009 to provide disposable cups, plates and utensils, along with hand sanitizer and disinfectants to employees at the National Weather Service offices in response to concerns over an outbreak of the H1N1 virus, colloquially called “swine flu.”

In 2013, Commerce announced that it would no longer provide disposable flatware to the regional offices, stating that the “purchase was for the primary benefit of the employees” and not the agency’s mission.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.federaltimes.com/story/government/management/agency/2014/12/29/gao-disposable-utensils/21014951/

 

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: agency mission, Commerce Dept., GAO, National Weather Service, personal items

Popular Topics

abuse acquisition reform acquisition strategy acquisition training acquisition workforce Air Force Army AT&L bid protest budget budget cuts competition cybersecurity DAU DFARS DHS DoD DOJ FAR fraud GAO Georgia Tech GSA GSA Schedule GSA Schedules IG industrial base information technology innovation IT Justice Dept. Navy NDAA OFPP OMB OTA Pentagon procurement reform protest SBA sequestration small business spending technology VA
Contracting Academy Logo
75 Fifth Street, NW, Suite 300
Atlanta, GA 30308
info@ContractingAcademy.gatech.edu
Phone: 404-894-6109
Fax: 404-410-6885

RSS Twitter

Search this Website

Copyright © 2023 · Georgia Tech - Enterprise Innovation Institute