“The DHS mission, as we all know,” notes Dr. Nick Nayak, DHS chief procurement officer, “is to ensure that the homeland is safe, secure, and resilient against terrorism and other potential threats and hazards.” This cannot happen without acquiring critical and necessary services and supplies from outside the department. It also requires that the department pursue a focused acquisition and procurement strategy that aligns resources with DHS strategic objectives. The mission of Dr. Nayak’s office, in conjunction with the department’s component contracting offices, is to procure those needed products and services, following sound business practices and a focused procurement strategy that ultimately gets the best deal for the department. This is no small charge, given the size and complexity of a department with a total budget of over $50 billion and 230,000 employees. “We spend nearly $20 billion a year—on the order of 46% of the DHS discretionary budget—to procure. We have roughly 18,000 long-term contracts and 98,000 contract actions that are performed by 1,400 contracting professionals within the department. My staff provides support to 500 programs that directly impact the DHS mission,” explains Nayak.

Before the current period of fiscal contraction, DHS had increased its acquisition spend some 66% between 2004 and 2009, with the number of large complex acquisitions continuing to increase. It’s important to put this portfolio in proper context to understand the critical role Dr. Nayak and his office play in making the department successful. “DHS procures more services than supplies,” describes Nayak. “Our top five services are guard services, research and development, IT services, professional and engineering services. Our top five supplies are ships, boats, aircraft, IT equipment and software, and security systems. The majority of our procurements are fixed-price. In fact, 64% of our contracts in FY11 (through August 2011) have been awarded as fixed-price contracts and over the last few years more than 80 percent of our procurements have been competitively awarded.”

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