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Who Should Read This Report and Why? Service acquisition executives, program managers, DoD contracting officials, and personnel with interest in the DoD acquisition workforce should read this report. This report addresses the DoD acquisition workforce count and congressional reporting as well as related contract administration and surveillance.
Background. The DoD acquisition workforce is subject to two methods of counting and congressional reporting. The first method, known as the “Acquisition Organization” workforce counting approach, was used by the 1986 President's Blue Ribbon Commission on Defense Management (the Packard Commission) and counts all personnel employed in 22 designated DoD acquisition organizations as part of the acquisition workforce, regardless of an employee's occupation. As of September 30, 2004, there were 206,653 civilian and military personnel included in the 22 designated DoD acquisition organizations. The second acquisition workforce counting method is known as the “Refined Packard” approach. In May 1997, the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics contracted with Jefferson Solutions, a division of Jefferson Consulting Group, to review alternative ways of identifying the acquisition workforce. In September 1997, Jefferson Solutions reported to the Office of the Under Secretary a proposed Refined Packard acquisition workforce methodology of combining occupational and organizational data for identifying those in the workforce. In a December 18, 1997, letter, the Secretary of Defense forwarded the Jefferson Solutions report to Congress and stated that, beginning October 1, 1998, members of the acquisition workforce would be uniformly identified using the Refined Packard model. While accepting the new approach, the House Armed Services Committee requested that DoD continue to report the Acquisition Organization workforce count in conjunction with the Refined Packard count.
As of September 30, 2004, there were 134,602 civilian and military personnel included in the DoD Refined Packard count. Of the 134,602 personnel in the Refined Packard workforce count, 69 percent (92,588) were assigned and included in the DoD Acquisition Organization count, while 31 percent (42,014) of the DoD Refined Packard workforce were assigned outside the 22 major DoD acquisition organizations. The Refined Packard model removed 55 percent (114,065) o f the 206,653 personnel included in the Acquisition Organization count because those personnel perform non-acquisition support functions, such as firefighting, police, human resources, administration, accounting, legal, engineering technicians, supply, transportation, and trades (such as equipment and facilities operations and maintenance).
Results. DoD annually reports to Congress a count of its acquisition workforce as compiled by the Defense Manpower Data Center through application of the Refined Packard method. The FY 2004 and prior Refined Packard workforce counts were unverifiable. As a result, DoD acquisition workforce planning risks, including for the Quadrennial Defense Review, could increase because annual Refined Packard workforce support and expenditures may be based on unreliable data and may not accurately reflect the true DoD acquisition workforce (finding A). Defense Manpower Data Center management controls for the acquisition workforce counting process were not adequate to ensure the count reflects the true DoD acquisition workforce. Implementing our recommendations will improve Defense Manpower Data Center acquisition workforce counting procedures.
The Defense Contracting Command-Washington did not properly negotiate or administer support service contract DASW01-03-F-0393 with Jefferson Solutions. In addition, the contracting officer representative approved Jefferson Solutions monthly invoices without requesting written support of services performed, hours expended, or products provided. As a result, the Government is not assured that fair and reasonable prices were negotiated with Jefferson Solutions, nor that work performed by Jefferson Solutions in identifying and reporting the Refined Packard workforce was done properly for the time and materials expended or that Government resources were used economically (finding B).
Recommendations. We recommend that the Director, Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy develop and implement written standard operating procedures and guidance for defining and counting the acquisition workforce, methodologies used to perform periodic workforce counts, and r equirements to maintain and support acquisition workforce count documentation; and r evise DoD Instruction 5000.55 to ensure consistent acquisition workforce information format and reporting from the DoD Components. We also recommend that the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness in coordination with the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics revise the instruction to estimate contractor equivalents that support the DoD acquisition workforce, and include such estimates as supplementary annual DoD acquisition workforce reporting data to Congress. We recommend the Director, Defense Manpower Data Center develop a knowledge management program to maintain corporate knowledge of Defense Manpower Data Center information systems and processes. We recommend that the Commander, Defense Contracting Command-Washington ensure that acquisition workforce count contracts supporting Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics components require written contractor monthly progress reports.
Management Comments and Audit Response. Management concurred with recommendations to develop and implement written standard operating procedures and guidance for defining and counting the acquisition workforce, methodologies used to perform periodic workforce counts, and r equirements for acquisition workforce count documentation; and to revise DoD Instruction 5000.55 to ensure consistent acquisition workforce information format and reporting from the DoD Components. Management also concurred with the recommendation to ensure that acquisition workforce count contracts supporting the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics components require written contractor monthly progress reports. We request by June 1, 2006, the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness comment regarding the redirected recommendation to revise DoD Instruction 5000.55 to estimate contractor equivalents that support the DoD acquisition workforce, and that the Director, Defense Manpower Data Center provide additional comments regarding the recommendation to develop a knowledge management program to maintain corporate knowledge of Defense Manpower Data Center information systems and processes.
Any comments or suggestions should be sent to: auditnet@dodig.mil