1993 & 2013 $
6,000 coffeepots. $100 hammers. Pliers for nearly $1,000… and that infamous toilet seat. Tose who are old enough will remember the
scandal over military procurements gone wrong in the mid-1980s.
With the high degree of professionalism of our current acquisition workforce, it’s hard to imagine this kind of waste occurring, but 25 years ago, there was controversy over whether DOD needed a professional acquisition workforce at all. Today, we take it for granted that highly qualified contracting and acquisition personnel are essential to meeting the needs of the Soldier and today’s Army while exercis- ing good stewardship of taxpayer dollars. Better Buying Power 2.0, with its focus
THE RIGHT STUFF
As a result of DAWIA, today’s acquisition workforce, civilians and military members alike, is well- trained and diligently developed to provide high-quality systems and services to warfighters on the battlefield as quickly as possible. Here, students in a recent Army Intermediate Program Management course at the Army Acquisition Center for Excellence (AACOE)—from left, CPT Andrew Rieck, CPT Matthew Anderson and MAJ Joseph Miozzi—work on a practical exercise following instruction on developing an acquisition strategy. (Photo by Michele Custer, AACOE)
Contrast that with today’s acquisition workforce, in which it takes 24 business hours and Level II DAWIA certification in one of 14 acquisition career fields to qualify personnel for membership in the U.S. Army Acquisition Corps (AAC). Even at the entry level, acquisition boot camps for new hires help instill esprit de corps for the Army and the acquisition profession. All of these initiatives have contributed to a professional acquisition workforce.
For a historical tour of AL&T over the past 52 years, visit the Army AL&T magazine archives
magazine/alt-magazine-archive/. 192
on the professionalism of the acquisition workforce, underscores the importance of training, education and recognition.
It was not always so. Army RD&A (now Army AL&T) dedicated its September- October 1993 issue to the acquisition corps, and the latest attempts to improve the workforce took center stage.
President George H.W. Bush signed the Defense Acquisition Workforce Improve- ment Act (DAWIA) into law in 1990 after President Reagan’s Blue Ribbon Com- mission on Defense Management, better known as the Packard Commission, found that
acquisition personnel—many of
whom handled procurement as a second- ary duty—lacked training and expertise.
As a result, DAWIA directed DOD to establish the Defense Acquisition Univer- sity, which was founded in 1992.
Periodic attempts had been made, most of them halfhearted, to study and change the acquisition workforce. “I experienced a rush of cynicism” after hearing about DAWIA, wrote Marilyn Harris in an opinion piece in the September-October 1993 Army RD&A. Harris,
then chief
of the Army’s Contracting Command in Fuerth, Germany, wrote, “A large part of the contracting workforce remains untrained even after the establishment of ‘mandatory’ courses 30 years ago.” Recalling her earlier years in contracting, when she was told it was merely clerical work, Harris wrote: “We spent so much of the taxpayers’ money and were not even considered ‘professionals.’ ”
at
http://asc.army.mil/web/
Army AL&T Magazine
July–September 2013
DESIGN DEVELOP DELIVER DOMINATE ARMYAL& T ASC . ARMY. MIL APRIL–JUNE 2 0 1 3
A SHOT OF COMPETITION
Getting more value in small-caliber ammo
Hon. Frank Kendall BBP, FROM THE TOP
A Q&A with
COE PLUS T e Common
Operating Environment, enhanced
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