By Elizabeth Newell
Lawmakers and agency officials outlined plans for strengthening the size and skill of the government's acquisition workforce at a Senate hearing Thursday.
The shrinking acquisition workforce has been an ongoing problem for years, especially as the number of procurements continues to grow. According to the Government Accountability Office, the government bought $400 billion in goods and services in fiscal 2006 with only 20,000 contracting specialists in the workforce. Half of the government's contracting specialists will be eligible for retirement by 2016, the latest annual report from the Federal Acquisition Institute estimated.
"With every new retiree, the government is losing important institutional knowledge," said Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii. "The government must act aggressively now in analyzing acquisition workforce trends so that a brain drain does not develop. . ."
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