Federal acquisition institute moves to defense acquisition university.

An important new partnership in acquisition excellence was announced by the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, the Department of Defense, and the General Services Administration in a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Defense Acquisition University on March 11, 2005. As part of that agreement, the Federal Acquisition Institute, which is under the direction of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy and part of GSA, is now located at DAU's Fort Belvoir campus.

The Federal Acquisition Institute and DAU share a similar vision and mission in support of their stakeholders and customers: to develop acquisition workforce members to be effective business leaders equipped to make business decisions that deliver best value, provide strategic business advice, and support the accomplishment of agency missions. The collocation will facilitate the partnership between FAI and DAU to ensure that the civilian and defense acquisition workforce receive similar training and development opportunities.

Present at the ceremony was Michael Wynne, under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics. "The hardest thing to earn is the respect of your peers," Wynne said. "This innovative agreement creates an ability to broaden the acquisition career field. It's a real 'wow' moment." DAU President Frank J. Anderson added that the agreement would "lift the bar for everyone in the federal government regarding acquisition training."

David H. Safavian, administrator for federal procurement policy, said, "We look forward to working with DoD to ensure that we train our acquisition workforce to be a federal asset, not just an agency asset."

"This [partnership] provides a key opportunity to ensure we have the highly skilled acquisition workforce needed to support federal agencies' missions and to meet workforce management challenges across agencies, civilian and military," stated Emily Murphy, GSA's chief acquisition officer.