In a recent report,"Acquisition Workforce Training and Qualifications", DHS Inspector General (IG) Robert Skinner highlighted problems with acquisition management at DHS. At first glance, it is simply another critical examination of DHS' challenges – nothing new here. But upon closer inspection it brings up an interesting point to be made in regard to the acquisition workforce. According to the report, DHS is not quite sure who all of its contracting officers, program managers, COTRs are or to what programs they are assigned. There's a group of rogue contracting professionals working at DHS under the radar.

A comparison of DHS' central database of its acquisition staff and those of its component agencies (primarily CBP, TSA, and Coast Guard) shows significant record-keeping issues. While the central database listed 1,506 contracting officers, program managers, and COTRs, the component agencies showed a total of 2,136. Only 1,322 names appeared in both areas. The IG's office analyzed the names by role and discovered that the average match rate for contracting officers at CBP and TSA was 85% and 88% respectively.

The IG also examined a select number of contracts to check program assignment records. It found that the databases only contained a portion of the personnel assigned. For example, the Coast Guard database only contained 20 of the 35 individuals assigned to a particular program. Similar story across components – at least 1 individual assigned to a program was not in the database.

The shortage in acquisition personnel is a priority issue in government right now. With the increasing numbers and complexity of contracts these days, there's no question that the contracting workforce is stretched thin. But by how much? DHS' stealth contracting workforce makes it difficult to for the department to measure not only the numbers, but training and certification levels as well. Could a better roll call system show that the contracting shortage is not as bad as it seems?