By Jeff Erlichman
Buyers need sellers, and the government has been the biggest buyer in the world, spending more than $500 billion in 2008.

Representing some of the recipients of the $500 billion is Alan Chvotkin, Executive Vice President & Counsel for the Professional Services Council (PSC), the national trade association of the government professional and technical services industry.

PSC is a respected industry voice and leader on legislative and regulatory policy issues related to government Procurement, outsourcing and related business policy. Its more than 300 member companies represent small, medium, and large businesses. Many provide the IT services government uses every day.

In a recent conversation with 1105 Government Information Group Custom Media, Chvotkin discussed a number of Procurement topics and how the Supplier community feels – including some frustrations – about them.


Growth In IDIQ Contracts

This decade has seen significant growth in large IT IDIQ contracts like DHS EAGLE and Navy SeaPort. For example SeaPort has 1400 contractors, divided into 7 regions and 21 functional areas.

Chvotkin said this growth in IDIQ contracts presents two sets of challenges. “One is lack of a workforce to run individual procurements resulting in more IDIQs; secondly because government deals with specific requirements at the Task Order level, companies get frustrated because they have to win twice; once to get on the contract and once to win a TO.”

Chvotkin referred to a study from the Center for Strategic and International Studies showing that in the last couple of years, more than 2/3 of all dollars awarded is in modifications or options under existing IDIQs or existing contracts. That placed a heavy emphasis on once you are in you are in; that work stays with incumbents and it is hard to break into the marketplace – another frustration.


Both Government and Industry Need To Step Up

From an industry standpoint, the frustration with workforce issues are two-fold Chvotkin said.  “One is the core competency of the workforce in government contracting generally. When we have looked at the acquisition workforce from the Federal Acquisition Institute report, there is a large concentration of experienced professionals now, but not as many new professionals coming in.”

Chvotkin also urged government to concentrate Procurement education in the areas – like IT – that government is going to increasingly need. “Over the past 5 years, the government has bought more services than hardware; yet the preponderance of the skill sets according to the governments own surveys come in areas like construction and materials and facilities,” Chvotkin explained. “While they are important areas, when you are buying complex IT services like all agencies do, they don’t have the skill sets.”

He also expressed concern that the mindset and culture of government has not changed, though the circumstances demand it especially when it comes to Procurement. “I did it this way last time, so I’m doing it the same way this time whether it makes sense or not brings frustration from contractor partners,” Chvotkin added.

Chvotkin wasn’t easy on his industry colleagues either. “We are also seeing from industry a lack of sophistication, even if they have core skills around buying behaviors so we often get cut and paste solicitations.”


Solutions Please

Good Procurement comes from having a well trained well compensated federal acquisition workforce said Chvotkin. To that end, PSC helps the Defense Acquisition University develop curriculum.

And government is finally doing some skills competency assessments that address the workforce challenge now and in the future. “Knowing where you are today and having a sense of where you need to be in the future helps you establish a strategic plan for the workforce to get there,” said Chvotkin.

Without a strategic view of what your demand set is going to be in 2-5 years, you can’t put a program in place and go recruit and train either existing staff or new staff coming in.

“It doesn’t do you any good to spend time training workforce in construction and R&D, when you need to buy complex IT systems and services,” urged Chvotkin.