The Defense Department’s acquisition corps has drawn sharp criticism from the Defense Business Board for its reliance on military officers with little or no business background who manage the estimated $400 billion in annual contracts.
The Board recommended on April 21 that the Defense Department should drastically overhaul its management of large contracts and development programs, particularly its placement of unqualified military officers for contract management. The board suggested the Pentagon should either “professionalize” the acquisition corps or “civilianize” program leadership.
If the Defense Department decides to professionalize the acquisition corps, the advisory board recommended a new career field should be established with educational programs for service members who want to focus on acquisitions. It also suggested separate promotion boards for program managers in acquisitions, emphasizing the unique position of acquisition managers in uniform.
"Make it a job, not a tour. A career destination," said Fred Cook, a businessman and board member who led the review, as reported by Federal Times.
While all acquisition program officials undergo training at the Defense Acquisition University, they are still under qualified to make sound acquisition decisions since they lack practical experience, said Richard Sylvester, a former Office of the Secretary of Defense official with decades of acquisition experience. "There’s a difference between learning something and actually having lived it," said Sylvester, who now works for the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) but who spoke on his own behalf.
The board discussed, but did not recommend, the creation of a new military command for acquisitions like the Air Force’s acquisition force, which has its own program management career field.
One of the primary criticisms by the defense business board was that many large programs can take up to 10 years to complete, yet military tours of just a few years mean multiple program managers will oversee the same project. Because of this, defense program managers make short-term decisions and are risk adverse, board members said.
"With the length of these acquisition programs, you don’t have to live with the decisions that you make, somebody else has to live with them," Sylvester said.
Nearly 150,000 people make up the defense acquisition workforce, including hundreds of program managers, according to a Pentagon spokeswoman.
