Instead of Cutting Services Because of Sequestration, Why Can't Government Departments just Make Their People Work Harder?

 

The title to this post is from a question asked on Quora by a member at that site:

https://www.quora.com/U-S-Federal-Budget/Instead-of-cutting-services-because-of-sequestration-why-cant-government-departments-just-make-their-people-work-harder

 The following is our response:

The US Government is monumentally inefficient and does not design systems, practices and policies like the commercial venue to save money or make a profit.

Government typically designs systems to spend money and perpetuate bureaucracy. They hire armies of high salaried General Services civilians and large, independent contractors to do so on cost plus and time and materials contracts with a baseline that changes every time the wind blows.  We watched this phenomena from the inside for 36 years, trying to control costs. It was a maddening process.

New buzz words continually surface such as "Performance Based Contracting". We have hands on experience with that one. It was made part of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) in an attempt to pre-establish at contract award those discrete outcomes that determine if and when a contractor will be paid.

Interestingly enough, the blame for the difficulties goes right down the middle, with the government typically having problems defining what it wants as an end product or outcome and looking to contractors to define it for them. More than willing to do so, the contractors detail specific end products or outcomes, set schedule milestones and submit competitive proposals.
The winner is selected based on what the government thinks it needs at the time to fulfill its requirement and a contract is negotiated. Once underway, the government decides it wants something else (usually a management-by-government committee phenomena with a contractor growing his product or service by offering lots of options).

The resulting change of contract scope invalidates the original price and schedule, so a whole new round of proposals and negotiations must occur with the winner while the losers watch something totally different evolve than that for which they competed. The clock keeps ticking and the winner keeps getting his monthly bill paid based on incurred cost or progress payments. The link to a Government Computer News article on this phenomena is below:

http://www.gcn.com/online/vol1_no1/42691-1.html
 
The present state of the economy will not allow the aforementioned to continue. Government agencies are now hard pressed to insure the most "Bang for the Buck". It is in the long term interests of astute contractors to assist in that endeavor. The only way to achieve such an objective is through sound technical, cost and schedule contract definition via an iterative process of baseline management and control. The following article is our attempt to address that process:

http://www.smalltofeds.com/2009/08/contract-baseline-management-in-small.html

ARE WE EXPECTING TOO MUCH FROM OUR GOVERNMENT?

The American Public fixates on government when things do not happen as planned or when unforeseen circumstances occur that are negative in nature. They ignore the huge government machine that has grown exponentially since World War II and has tremendous momentum among the civil servants, military personnel and corporate entities who run the multiples of components we never hear about (until something negative happens - a security breach, a financial scandal, an oversight malfunction)

We must understand that the sheer size of the mechanism that runs the government will never be seriously evaluated and made more efficient by politicians and the civil servants that run it. It is not in their personal interest to do so and personal interest and personal fortunes are what has driven the popular culture recently - at least up to now.

The big machine must go bankrupt and totally run out of funding and credibility, then be re-sized like any machine that has become dangerous or is malfunctioning.

The decision makers who remain must then pick up the pieces and put in place a government industrial complex we can afford, based on high technology, prudent judgment regarding world interventions and finance.

There will be much pain involved in the process as we shrink by sheer default.

The current recession and creditors who are thinking twice about showing up at government bond auctions are among the world events going on as we speak that will drive the above metamorphosis:


http://rosecoveredglasses.blogspot.com/2009/01/yet-another-governmentindustrial.html


http://rosecoveredglasses.blogspot.com/2008/09/two-collapsing-towers-wall-street-and.html

VETERAN TONY ROSE NOW HAS US CITIZENSHIP

After a nearly 4 year battle with the Departments of Immigration, Homeland Security and Social Security, the US Government has conceded that Mr. Anthony Aldo Rose who served in the US Navy during the Vietnam Era and worked in this country for 40 years, in fact never left the country, is an American citizen and can draw his Social Security Pension.You may recall his story as covered by the Pioneer Press and the Hastings Gazette last year. The blog on his struggles with the Feds is at:

http://rosecoveredglasses.blogspot.com/2007/11/help-for-us-navy-vet-without-country.html

Our thanks to Pro Bono Lawyer Stella Mednick, who we met through "Linked In", for her untiring efforts on Tony's behalf.

Below is the link to the St. Paul Pioneer Press coverage of the Citizenship Ceremony:

http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_13828521?nclick_check=1

SAIC Case Sheds Needed Light on World of Government Contracting

By Steven Pearlstein

Friday, July 10, 2009
Washington Post

Science Applications International Corp. is not only one of the federal government's largest contractors -- with more 17,000 Washington area employees, it is the region's fourth-largest private employer. So it is of more than passing interest that after a lengthy investigation, the Justice Department has now accused company executives of conspiring with corrupt Navy officials to rig a 2004 computer contract potentially worth billions of dollars.

Last week the Justice Department asked a federal judge in Jackson, Miss., to order the company to pay damages that could top $350 million -- a lot of money for a company that earned $450 million last year. A judgment might also lead the government to temporarily suspend SAIC from competing for new contracts.

See Above link to read more.

UPDATES - ON STATUS OF NAVY VETERAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY - GOVERNMENT CONTRACT WASTE, FRAUD AND ABUSE

TONY ROSE GETTING PRESS AND GOVERNMENT COVERAGE ON HIS PENSION STATUS

The Pioneer Press has run a story on Tony Rose, the Navy Veteran who has not been able to collect his social security pension for 2 years while being snared in a malfunctioning Homeland Security database:

http://www.twincities.com/ci_11190464?nclick_check=1


The Office of Norm Coleman and the St. Paul Pioneer Press have also interviewed Mr. Rose in continuing efforts to focus attention to his problem.

Mr. Rose's case has not been re-opened by the St. Paul Office of the Social Security Administration and his lawyer is preparing affidavits in pursuit of hearings on the matter.

USA TODAY COVERAGE OF GOVERNMENT CONTRACTOR WASTE FRAUD AND ABUSE.

The following two stories detail the horrendous waste of taxpayer money in connection with federal contracts containing funds earmarked for support of the Iraq war.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2008-11-17-iraqcontracts_N.htm

http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2008-11-17-iraq-contract-inside_n.htm

The data points to the escalating demise of the Military Industrial Complex as covered in the following postings:

http://rosecoveredglasses.blogspot.com/2008/09/two-collapsing-towers-wall-street-and.html


http://rosecoveredglasses.blogspot.com/2008/11/as-recently-announced-by-project-on.html

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT BECOMING MORE TRANPARANT ON WASTE, FRAUD AND ABUSE CASES

As recently announced by the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) Congress and President Bush have mandated a federally maintained database on waste, fraud and abuse cases by government contractors. The purpose of the record is to inform government contracting officers, source selection boards and buyers regarding details on past performance of a negative nature in this area that can weigh in future contract awards.

http://www.pogo.org/p/contracts/ca-081015-fcmd.html

Since the government database will not be visible to the public, POGO continues to publish this information from public records and has for many years as a non-profit organization. POGO has also pressed the government to assume responsibility for the information. That effort has now succeeded.

We applaud POGO's success.

http://www.pogo.org/p/x/aboutus.html

POGO has published its most recent records at its web site:

http://contractormisconduct.org/

The top 100 government contractor track records are shown as well as others. As POGO states in the analysis at its site, it should be noted that the most serious offenders continue to receive contracts from the very agencies that have prosecuted them for fraudulent activities.

POGO also points out that many of the top 100 contractors have no apparent instances of a negative nature or very few. It is possible to be a major player in the industry without resorting to waste, fraud and abuse.

The above table is POGO's latest data from public records on the top 100 federal government contractors. If you are interested in the details of these cases, go to the POGO site and click on the name of the company. A convenient summation of the government cases against the firm will appear.