These are challenging times in an environment of static budgets, increasing demands,
and growing expectations on behalf of the taxpayer. Government is required to be as
efficient - or more so - than the private sector in delivering products and services
and acquisition and financial assistance are critical to making it all happen.
The reality of this environment requires the federal assistance and acquisition
communities to serve as an integral, accountable team members in achieving successful
program outcomes. As partners with program management, we must facilitate innovative
and smart business arrangements while managing the processes.
At the Department of Commerce over 60 percent of the budget is spent through
Federal
Assistance, Acquisition, or
Interagency Agreements>. To effectively deliver services
as business solution providers, we must operate as a
performance-based organization,
focused on delivering results - on time, within budget, through a streamlined,
efficient process.
In doing so we will:
- Partner in the development of assistance and acquisition strategies once strategic plans and budgets are formulated;
- Focus on performance by facilitating innovative and smart business arrangements, develop performance metrics for grants and contracts linked to strategic plans, and develop the appropriate skills among our grants and contract specialists, program officers, and contracting officer representatives;
- Leverage technology and commercial practices to transform processes and gain business information for strategic business decisions; and
- Continue to employ the Balanced Scorecard performance measurement and management systems to track progress against advertised goals and drive changes in process, policy, and systems;
The strength of any high performing organization are the employees on the front line.
This means the role of financial assistance and acquisition professionals must
transform from the traditional role. Our role is now one of a business broker that is
involved at the program planning and requirements definition stage to enable mission
success. This new role expands the definition of business broker to include the
program officials and contracting officer representatives who are substantially
involved in the process.
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