Joe Jordan, the man the Obama administration has nominated to be the administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy is testifying before Senators today.
It remains unclear if his nomination will get through the Senate before election day. But either way the next OFPP administrator will face some tough challenges.
What are the challenges facing Jordan and the procurement and acquisition community?
Rob Burton is a partner at Venable Law Firm and the former deputy administration at Office of Federal Procurement Policy. He told Chris Dorobek on the DorobekINSIDER program why he thinks the new administrator is in for a bumpy ride.
Rob Burton’s Big Takeaways:
- “Small business owners are not happy right now with government acquisition. They say transparency is weakened and it’s harder to communicate with agencies. The other main problem is that the administration has two competing agendas, they want to improve small business contracting but they are also insourcing more and more.
- 12 Page Mythbusters document 1 and 2 — show that communication between industry and government is a problem. Burton gives kudos to the administration for acknowledging the problem.
Does the OFPP Administrator matter?
Burton says it does. “The problem is its a small office and the FAR isn’t easy to understand. In order for the office to function they need to have people on your staff who are acquisition professionals.”