Procurement Policy
White House At Odds With House on Weapons Cancellations
Jun 12, 2013 by Nick Schwellenbach
It's an old battle: executive branch expertise on how it thinks taxpayer dollars should be spent versus the congressional power of the purse. This story plays out often in the yearly authorization and appropriations bills for the Department of Defense (DOD). This year is not any different as a White House statement from yesterday makes clear.
read in fullGAO Reports Defense Department Barely Moving toward a Comprehensive Service Contracts Database
Apr 17, 2012
Earlier in April, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released the second in a series of new, congressionally mandated reports assessing the Department of Defense’s (DOD) efforts to compile an inventory of service contracts. Congress intends for the Pentagon to include these reviews in its yearly budget work and expects “inherently governmental work” currently performed by private contractors to be brought back “in-house.” This review process will help the Pentagon find ways to reduce costs and limit the over-reliance on contractors.
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New CAP Papers Offer Contracting Reform Recommendations
Apr 4, 2012 by Gary Therkildsen*
The Center for American Progress (CAP) has released a series of three new papers on how the federal government can improve contracting through selective insourcing, better auditing, and increased transparency. Each paper contains specific recommendations that would help improve how Uncle Sam doles out contracting dollars and the return Americans could see on that spending.
read in fullStudy Shows Private Contractors Usually Cost More than Public Employees
Sep 27, 2011
Conventional wisdom in Washington dictates that the private sector can always provide services at a lower cost than the federal government. A new study from the Project On Government Oversight (POGO), however, turns conventional wisdom on its head, demonstrating that the government rarely reaps the purported benefits of lower costs through the outsourcing of service work. In fact, POGO found that, on average, the government pays service contractors more than 1.8 times the amount it pays federal employees with the same education, doing the same job and performing similar tasks.
read in fullCWC's Final Report: Make Investments in Contracting Oversight
Sep 13, 2011
On Aug. 31, the Commission on Wartime Contracting (CWC) released its final report to Congress, detailing contracting issues in Iraq and Afghanistan. Although most media outlets focused on the sensational estimates of funds lost through waste and fraud over the course of the wars – possibly totaling $60 billion – the report makes a much broader and compelling argument for systemic contracting reforms and better contractor oversight. With the current atmosphere of austerity on Capitol Hill, Congress should heed these recommendations.
read in fullHow to Strengthen Transparency in the U.S. Open Government Plan
Sep 1, 2011 by Gavin Baker
Yesterday, OMB Watch submitted its recommendations for the Obama administration's national plan for the Open Government Partnership (OGP). The administration will unveil its plan, with new concrete commitments to increase transparency, at the international OGP meeting on Sept. 20.
read in fullLet's Have Contractor Disclosure Already
Aug 2, 2011 by Gary Therkildsen*
Last week, a group of more than 60 House lawmakers sent a letter to President Obama offering their "full support" for final release of a proposed executive order (EO) that would require disclosure of contractors' political spending. After more than three months of baseless attacks on the prospective EO from a relentless special interest smear machine, it's time for the president to establish this basic measure of accountability within the federal contracting system.
read in fullArmy Report Highlights Need for More Contracting Officers
Jul 27, 2011
A recently released review of the U.S. Army's acquisition process reveals that the service must invest in more acquisition personnel and better training to help address failed weapons programs and their associated costs. Arresting staggering cost increases is an important objective for the Army, but Congress's current obsession with deficit reduction may become the greatest impediment to saving taxpayer dollars.
read in fullWhose Contracting Mess Won't Appear in FAPIIS, but Should?
Jul 19, 2011 by Gary Therkildsen*
Give yourself credit if you guessed "ArmorGroup North America Inc." (AGNA) and the "Lord of the Flies" environment they oversaw in the housing camp for U.S embassy guards in Kabul, Afghanistan, which our friends over at the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) exposed back in 2009.
read in fullJamie Leigh Jones Law beyond Dispute
Jul 8, 2011 by Gary Therkildsen*
Mother Jones reports that Jamie Leigh Jones – the woman who in 2005 made explosive allegations of gang rape and intimidation while employed in Iraq by former Halliburton subsidiary KBR – stands a “good chance” of losing her civil suit against the contractor due to “significant holes and discrepancies in her story.” These revelations, however, should not call into question the meaningful legislation drafted and passed into law in response to her alleged ordeal.
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