You Got Served
Spending on services accounted for 60 percent of the more than $400 billion in government's spending in 2006. That's a huge increase from years past. Even some proponents of outsourcing recognize that the government has a hard time judging how much services should cost, and whether taxpayers are getting what they paid for.
Five years ago, the Services Acquisition Reform Act mandated the creation of a panel to recommend how to improve such spending. Last year, the panel made 89 recommendations. Then the Government Accountability Office was asked to take stock of those recommendations.
In a new report, the GAO does just that. Read the recommendations closely. There's no overstating the importance. So much spending of taxpayer money is done with so little care, let alone competition.
Here's the GAO's opening, a veritable litany of contracting ills that some people, maybe even some of you, would rather not address:
"The SARA Panel, like GAO, has made numerous recommendations to improve federal government acquisition--from encouraging competition and adopting commercial practices to improving the accuracy and usefulness of procurement data. The recommendations in the SARA Panel report are largely consistent with GAO's past work and recommendations. The panel and GAO have both pointed out:
• the importance of a robust requirements definition process and the need for competition;
• the need to establish clear performance requirements, measurable performance standards, and a quality assurance plan to improve the use of performance-based contracting;
• the risks inherent in the use of interagency contracts due to their rapid growth and their improper management;
• stresses on the federal acquisition workforce and the need for a strategy to assess these workforce needs;
• concerns about the role of contractors engaged in acquisition program management and procurement traditionally performed by government employees and the proper roles of federal employees and contractor employees in a 'blended' workforce; and
• the adverse effects of inaccurate and incomplete federal procurement data, such as not providing a sound basis for conducting procurement analyses."
Anybody in government going to take a serious shot at implementing the recommendations? Government Inc. is standing by.
By Robert O'Harrow |
January 24, 2008; 7:00 AM ET
Services Spending
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Posted by: Michael Lent | January 24, 2008 8:15 AM
I may be wrong,
but as long as political appointees overseeing contracting policy in every federal agency
are advocates from industry,
trying to shrink accountability and oversight,
you can have all the investigations and findings and reports in the world,
but waiting for the foxes to find and fix
whatever is killing and eating all the hens in the henhouse -
that could be a long wait.
Posted by: Brian S | January 27, 2008 1:45 PM
from his signature block,
I assume Michael Lent is an advocate for industry.
He is suggesting,
in a frequently repeated refrain,
that the problem is the size or competence of the acquisition workforce.
It's not.
It's the foxes making policy to give away the store to their former employers,
who they fully expect to be their future employers.
Michael complains about the glacial pace of awarding contracts.
He doesn't say,
none of those industry advocates will come right out and say it,
but they believe that what's important is awarding contracts quickly, without worrying about regulatory requirements.
To them, that will solve the logjam.
So let me ask:
if the trend is toward conducting business the way industry conducts business,
how does Lockheed decide who to award a contract to ?
Well, if there's a Lockheed unit that needs work,
they get the contract/ subcontract.
No competition.
No consideration for best value or best performance.
Keep the business in-house.
That's what the industry advocates are trying to bring to government contracting.
These "commercial" initiatives are killing small biz,
killing competition, killing quality.
But I'm guessing they increase campaign contributions.
Posted by: Brian S | January 27, 2008 1:57 PM
I can only comment on the one Govt. agency that I had years of service dealing with contracting but I am sure that the same pratices exist throughout the goverment--Getting the most bang out of the bucks takes a lot of work from govt. empoyees and most are like water, they take the path of least resistance and award to contractors that are exempt from competitive bidding regardless of the cost. I would guess from the top to bottom, who cares how much it cost in dollars just how does it count in votes and how much work does it make for me.
Posted by: Gene | January 28, 2008 4:46 PM
I say since you're right on point "hold them tightly and continue to pour the truth on them, or pour it on them, and then hold them"! The system is full of "disfunctional old heads, psudo-nepotism, and weak folks as managers" who aren't about push back and initiate or suggest a thing. (they whine, but they are fat & happy).
Posted by: AC | January 29, 2008 3:57 PM
Certainly, there are some important perspectives on each side of the table, but I think there may be some confusion on which table it is. What I garner from the author is that his attention is less to the connection between political--namely, campaigns--and government industry and contracting. Perhaps I am naive though. Rather, what I see is an attempt to continue the necessary attention on wasteful spending. Though, I recognize the validity of some of the remarks here that a great deal of the trouble in this arena may be related to campaign financing. I just don't think any of us should focus one specific element. Those who talk about this simply from the campaign finance argument may tend to overlook the importance of poor fiscal policy in the contract industry to the American taxpayer, while those focus on the latter may tend to overlook the political ramifications beyond where and how tax dollars are spent.
Just my take.
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I hope the research and thinking of Brian S in his January 27 comment is actually better than he indicates. He assumes that I'm an industry "advocate" because of the name of my publication.
Au contraire, Brian. It's actually possible to be complementary of both government and industry and constructively critical of both government and industry at the same time. Even most of the insightful partisans I know, among those who simply must choose "sides," would share my views on government behavior. Less so re industry behaviors, which are needlessly mysterious to government officials.
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The comments to this entry are closed.
Robert,
With respect, I'd suggest that you need to get out more.
Rather than end your column with one of your typical questions ("Anybody in government going to take a serious shot at implementing the recommendations? Government Inc. is standing by.")and hoping someone has the answer, even if rhetorical, you could actually put on your investigative journalist's cape and find out.
For example, on acquisition workforce issues, you might consult Paul Denett at OFPP. There's actually a lot of study and planning(naturally) going on, but the wheels are actually turning to improve and enlarge the acq workforce. It will take many years.
Actually, you could find a lot (of plans, intentions) on paper for all of your points. But the actions are slow.
The SARA panel took two years to tell us what we already knew--there wasn't a problem cited that hasn't been known and chewed over before.
The real story (tip, here!) would be to discover, even measure empirically in elapsed time and dollars, how long it takes to implement anything in the acq arena, and how much the glacial pace costs, not only in expenses, but in smarter, more cost-effective procurements that could have taken place. That would be a Pulitzer-quality story, because the collective stakeholders have a habit of snuffing out difficult, but necessary, improvements.
Please let us readers know what you think of this idea. Thanks for considering this suggestion.
Michael Lent
Editor and Publisher
Government Services Insider
www.gsinsider.com