Acquisition Workforce: DOT Lacks Data, Oversight, and Strategic Focus Needed to Address Significant Workforce Challenges.

摘要

With $5.6 billion in procurement spending in fiscal year 2011, DOT relies on its acquisition workforce - including contracting and program management staff - to negotiate and administer contracts and manage large-scale acquisition programs. Having sufficient numbers of adequately trained acquisition professionals is critical to ensuring maximum value and benefit to the department. In a fiscal year 2012 Senate appropriations bill report, GAO was directed to assess (1) DOTs efforts to identify acquisition workforce needs, and (2) the Office of the Secretary of Transportations role in providing oversight and support for acquisition workforce planning and management. GAO reviewed DOTs acquisition workforce plans for 2010, 2011, and 2012 along with supporting documentation, and interviewed agency officials on how the data were collected and used. The primary focus was on five OAs that accounted for 92 percent of DOT procurement spending in fiscal year 2011.