The Department of the Treasury Acquisition Career Management Program Handbook provides policy, procedures, and guidance to support the implementation of the requirements of the Federal Acquisition Reform Act (FARA) of 1996, OFPP Policy Letter 05-01, Developing and Managing the Acquisition Workforce, and OMB Memorandum dated January 20, 2006, the Federal Acquisition Certification in Contracting Program. On January 1, 2000, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), in response to Section 4307(g) of the Federal Acquisition Reform Act (FARA), issued a new qualification standard for GS-1102 contracting positions in civilian agencies. The new requirements are generally comparable to those already established for Department of Defense positions in 1990 by the Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA). The 2000 OPM qualification standard has not been changed by the issuance of either OFFP Policy Letter 05-01 or the January 2006 OMB FAC-C Memorandum.

In response to a congressional request, GAO examined the Department of Defense's (DOD) acquisition work force, specifically program managers and contracting officers and their: (1) roles in weapons system acquisition; (2) tools to carry out their jobs; (3) external influences; and (4) career preparation. A program manager heads each weapon system acquisition with assistance from various specialists, including a contracting officer who is legally authorized to commit the government to contracts. GAO found that the program managers' and contracting officers' capability to contract for new weapon systems is limited because: (1) their roles in early program phases are not fully defined or well understood in practice; (2) acquisition strategy development lacks the criteria to tailor the competition's scope and intent to individual programs; (3) external factors affect many programs and create a poor climate for logical, planned program development; and (4) career programs do not provide the intense and diverse experience, training, qualification criteria, and incentives to develop program managers and contracting officers. GAO also found that about half of the 17 new programs it reviewed fell short of the minimum competition level that DOD policy called for because: (1) DOD has not identified the program characteristics sensitive to various levels of competition or the criteria to apply them; (2) insufficient advance funding limited the programs; (3) many recently appointed program managers lacked substantial program-office or other acquisition experience, as well as specialized training; (4) the selection of contracting officers was not based on specific experience, education, or training; and (5) military career paths did not identify the types of acquisition experience desired.