There has been some pretty eye opening stuff going on over at the Department of the Interior's Mineral Management Service (MMS). The Department of the Interior Inspector General released the results of three separate investigations into allegations of misconduct among dozens of employees and managers at the MMS. And the pretty shocking results would even make Lurita Doan blush (or maybe take out her pen and pad and take notes?). The IG report described the MMS as having a "culture of ethical failure" and details some ridiculously arrogant and decrepit behavior.

I came across another delay in a federal contracting effort to report today. Seems the Department of Defense, and more specifically Secretary Robert Gates, feels it will not have sufficient time to complete the re-competition for the contract to build the next generation of mid-air refueling tankers. Gates announced this morning during testimony before the House Armed Services Committee that DoD has decided to cancel the competition and leave the issue for the incoming administration to figure out.

Elizabeth Newell wrote an good summary last week in Government Executive magazine of the state of a handful of reforms to the federal contracting process that have been stalled in the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.

Sure, the "privatize everything" crowd talks a good mediocre game, but when it comes action, their devotion to free market ideology is less than devout. Given a choice between letting management come to a compromise with workers on the rules of unionizing and having the federal government impose organizing rules that ostensibly favor business, there's no contest. The Bush administration is weighing an executive order that would eliminate a union-preferred method of labor organizing at large government contractors, according to people familiar with the situation.