The average pay for a contracting officer in the private sector is nearly $86,000 per year, according to NCMA’s 2007 salary survey. Meanwhile, the average government pay for contracting personnel is $77,000, according to the Federal Acquisition Institute (FAI).
Much of the evidence for the salary draw, however, is anecdotal, Couture said. In one recent case Couture is aware of, a federal acquisition intern who had just finished his training decided to go to the private sector after realizing he could do the same work for better pay. Some managers are adjusting to this reality by training three interns to fill one position because they know one intern will be poached by another agency and a second intern will be plucked by industry, he said.
“The talent that is getting picked off is the good stuff,” Couture said. “This exacerbates the personnel challenges.”
So far, the government has been able to stay slightly ahead of the attrition rate. It hired 490 more people than it lost last year, according to the FAI report.
It is not clear how many of the retirees or those leaving government before retirement went into the private sector last year, said Karen Pica, director of FAI. But FAI plans on tracking that data for next year’s report, she said.
“The FAI report exposes a much larger, more enduring problem than the well-chronicled retirement tsunami,” said Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va. “It’s not just that people leave the acquisition work force — it’s that good people are leaving.”
And it’s not just pay that’s luring people away from government contracting shops. Other factors, like heavy congressional oversight, are also pushing them away, Davis said. “I have been asking the new majority since January 2007, when the latest acquisition reform efforts began, how it plans to keep good people in government and attract young people,” Davis said. “We’re not going to do it with legislation mandating more reports, more restrictions, more requirements, more audits, and more [inspectors general].”
