Stephen Barr, who writes the Federal Diary column for the Washington Post, wrote on an interesting topic last week - the growth in federal contracting officers (COs) under President Bush. Barr reported that the number of COs has increased 6.8 percent since President Bush took office, according to federal statistics. Barr also was correct in pointing out that there are concerns among many in Washington (both inside Congress and out) that despite these increases, there are still far too few COs and they receive sub par training and support in doing their jobs. One of the most shocking things was that federal officials don't even know how many COs would be appropriate to have: But how many contracting officers the government actually needs has not been determined, despite efforts by federal agencies, the Office of Personnel Management and the OMB over the past two years to develop plans for hiring and training contracting officers and specialists. "We are still working real hard with OPM and the departments to try to figure out what the right number is," said Paul A. Denett, an Office of Management and Budget official in charge of government procurement policy. For his part, Denett added, "I believe we need to increase the hiring even more." Let me give Mr. Denett a hint. You definitely need to hire more. While the COs workforce has increased 6.8 percent since Bush took office, federal contracting dollars have increased close to 100 percent - from $219.8 billion in FY 2001 to $430.1 billion in FY 2007. Those facts alone should be pushing the government to hire and better train more employees to oversee an immense area of discretionary spending by the federal government. That, plus the wide-ranging and seemingly continuous reports of waste, fraud, and abuse in federal contracting makes it almost shameful something hasn't been done already.