FEMA has made progress with acquisition workforce recruitment and retention, but staff turnover in its contracting program has resulting in multimillion-dollar contracts not being managed effectively or consistently and exacerbated file maintenance problems, the DHS inspector general told a Senate panel recently.
It said the agency has also faced difficulty hiring experienced contracting officers to work at disasters, where most on-site staff on an on-call, intermittent basis.
One problem is that FEMA until recently has categorized all disaster assistance employees in the same occupational series, making it difficult to advertise specifically to contracting officers with job announcements and solicit applications, said the IG.
Further, it said that that lumping these employees in the same category – #301 – also meant they could previously only administer contracts up to $150,000, and meant that FEMA could not hire annuitants in that classification under OPM rules. FEMA has since begun classifying disaster assistance employees performing contracting functions to be classified as 1102s, something the IG said should help it get more experienced contracting officers.
