"WHEN WILL THE CONTRACTORS CONTRACT?

How the Pentagon Floats to the Tax Payer the Massive, Tiered, Overheads of Major Corporations in the Military Industrial Complex

 Chuck Spinney Photo Courtesy of Bill Moyers Interviews at "Now" on PBS http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript_spinney.html 

The following article is an outstanding guest blog by Chuck Spinney  on the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) a venerable Washington D.C. Non-Profit that has been around since they first assisted in bringing attention to $640 toilet seats and $436 hammers of the 1980s.

Spinney spent 33 years at the Department of Defense including 26 years as a staff analyst, has testified before congress and won many awards for his straight forward critique of the Pentagon.

Rather than blowing whistles on classified data, Chuck has been respected for years for his straight-forward views and recommendations on how the Pentagon, our biggest government agency, has been managed.   This is a man who has been there.

As Spinney points out the reasons for the astounding costs at the Pentagon are the  same today - "It is all about allocating overhead spending by contractors in an  unaccountable financial system"

Below is an extract from Chuck's article and a link to it at POGO:

POGO

 "The fact that the Pentagon does not have an in-house capability to do  audits is a reflection of its own priorities of delay and obfuscation.  The Pentagon does not have a capability to make sense out of accounting  systems after 20-plus years of failing to meet its legal obligations,  because it has not assigned a high enough priority to the problem. Punt  bluntly, the Pentagon does not want to have that capability.

 The reason the Pentagon does not want auditable books is simple: the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex benefits  from the money flows hidden in the perpetual chaos of the bookkeeping shambles. "

 

http://www.pogo.org/blog/2013/06/when-will-the-contractors-contract.html

 

 

How Does One Inculcate Independence?

               Awards Ceremony U.S. Department of Agriculture Small Woman-Owned Business of the Year

A MENTORING QUESTION ON "QUORA":

"I understand that there is a fine line between when you step in to guide and when you expect/want the mentee to figure it out on their own. How would you slowly push them towards the independent side?"

OUR ANSWER:

"Do not work the issue or solve the challenge for them.  Educate and provide a road map so they understand it and evolve the solution for themselves.

Offer a map with variable shoulders on the road and the flexibility for a  few detours from which recovery can be achieved."

      

Travelers on the road of knowledge en route to wisdom learn best via a vehicle they  drive themselves.  Not all travel at the same speed or take the same  route to a destination.

Here is a success story that I had the privilege to witness from a company that bridged the gap to which your question refers.  Note the link to the astute article they have shared with the small business community at the link below:

Top 3 Success Strategies from a Thriving Small Business

 

A Failing Veterans Health Care Handoff

ISSUE

Massive backlog reveals the dire necessity for simplification, communication and efficiency in processes, systems and government service contracting in DOD and the Veterans Administration. 

BACKGROUND

A recent 3 part special in Time Magazine addresses the serious gaps between treatment, benefits and services processes and systems between the military services and the Veterans Administration:

http://nation.time.com/2013/04/22/what-the-hell-is-going-on-with-va/#ixzz2RnspoSM4

"While awaiting processing, "the veteran’s claim sits stagnant for up to 175 days as VA awaits transfer of complete (service treatment records) from DoD,":


http://veterans.house.gov/sites/republicans.veterans.house.gov/files/2013%2004%2016%20HVAC%20to%20Sec%20Hagel.pdf

After years of work to move toward integrated electronic records that would eliminate this sort of delay, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel recently conceded that the Defense Department is not holding up its end of the bargain to improve the disability process.

"I didn’t think, we knew what the hell we were doing.":

 http://www.federalnewsradio.com/394/3288748/Hagel-orders-DoD-to-restructure-path-toward-integrated-health-record

HISTORICAL SIMILARITIES
 
The above scenario is not unlike the Walter Reed Army Hospital care fiasco a few years ago, before the facility was shut down and consolidated with the Bethesda Naval facility.

OTHER SYMPTOMS

The VA decided to have those who would actually use the system (claims processors) work with software developers. This process took longer but will create a system more likely to meet the needs of those who actually use it. VA also worked closely with major congressionally-chartered veterans’ service organizations.

This year, 2013, is the year in which regional offices are being transitioned to the new electronic system.

ROOT CAUSE

Both the services and the Veterans Administration use service contractors to perform this type of systems development. Government Computer News (GCN)  carried a story on the difficulties experienced with, "Performance-Based Contracting", which has been 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 article splits the blame for the difficulties right down the middle, stating the government typically has problems defining what it wants as an end product or outcome and looks 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 the GCN article is below:

http://gcn.com/articles/2006/12/01/performancebased-contracting-still-baffles-agencies.aspx

CONCLUSION

The present state of the economy and the needs of our servicemen 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.

Our returning soldiers and those who have served before deserve better.

ARE AMERICA'S BEST DAYS BEHIND US?

Comparing US state GDP with countries

This question on Quora attracted our attention.  In response we point out that the US GDP is still the largest in the world. Our high technology cannot be matched. We have enough weapons systems and science to beat all our competitors and solve our problems.

The above graphic and the associated  metrics at "The Economist" linked below leave not doubt with regard to the future potential of the US economy. 
 
http://www.economist.com/node/21014355
 
We believe Mr. Zakaria's Time Magazine article , "How to Restore the American Dream"  is spot on.  It is an interesting analysis and positive future forecast. The link to the article is below:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2026916,00.html
 

Mr. Zakaria addresses how the US is adapting to the "New Normal", which has substantially redefined the American Dream.

When the US ceased being an industrial giant it switched to consumerism and high technology to replace the missing base.

The challenge resulting from that transition has been in leaving the American worker behind and with corporations that are operating globally on a supply and demand basis responding to shifts in demographics, economics and the resulting markets.

In essence the US is climbing on the world economic train as individuals, businesses and as a government and joining those who are on board and leaving the station.

It is requiring a shift in thinking, an emphasis on education, diversity enhancement, strong doses of American ingenuity and hard work.

We are en route to making these adjustments and our position in the global economy will be secured by them. 

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

The Truth About the NRA

Other nations do not have an organization like the NRA. Every US citizen should read the full history of the NRA as published by the Washington Post in the article linked below entitled:

"How NRA’s true believers converted a marksmanship group into a mighty gun lobby"

 http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-01-12/politics/36311919_1_nra-leaders-nra-officers-mighty-gun-lobby

Here is an excerpt:

"In gun lore it’s known as the Revolt at Cincinnati. On May 21, 1977, and into the morning of May 22, a rump caucus of gun rights radicals took over the annual meeting of the National Rifle Association.

The rebels wore orange-blaze hunting caps. They spoke on walkie-talkies as they worked the floor of the sweltering convention hall. They suspected that the NRA leaders had turned off the air-conditioning in hopes that the rabble-rousers would lose enthusiasm.

What unfolded that hot night in Cincinnati forever reoriented the NRA. And this was an event with broader national reverberations. The NRA didn’t get swept up in the culture wars of the past century so much as it helped invent them — and kept inflaming them. In the process, the NRA overcame tremendous internal tumult and existential crises, developed an astonishing grass-roots operation and became closely aligned with the Republican Party.

Today it is arguably the most powerful lobbying organization in the nation’s capital and certainly one of the most feared. There is no single secret to its success, but what liberals loathe about the NRA is a key part of its power. These are the people who say no."

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TONY ROSE - "ROSE COVERED GLASSES" FOUNDER

TONY (ON RIGHT) AT "ROSE COLORED GLASSES" BOOK RELEASE"JANUARY 2010

In Honor of General H. Norman Schwarzkopf - Dead at Age 78

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Schwarzkopf,_Jr.

 

He fought a just and honorable war assisting many Middle East allies and other countries to free Kuwait. General Schwarzkopf is a true American hero. You will note he came home and stayed home. His successors then hung around with an imperialist attitude, resented by cultures that have hated that type of control for thousands of years.

These incursions have killed thousands of our finest youth and maimed the lives of countless others. We learned nothing from the Russians, our own experiences in Vietnam and similar outings in the past.

The average American will pay for this ruin in decades to come through taxes supporting hospital care, social services and veteran's homes.

The Real Issue of Gun Control

As  former military men, security specialists and those who have taken lives in combat, we  assure you of the following:

If you are carrying a gun and you are NOT one of the following:


1. A soldier

2. A policeman or a duly authorized security officer

3. A licensed hunter of wild animals in the woods


 You are part of the problem, not part of the solution.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS 2012 FROM ROSE COVERED GLASSES

PLEASE CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE

VOTE TO "DE-CONSTIPATE GOVERNMENT"

VOTE:

The candidates who will make conscious decisions to participate in bipartisan plans to "De-Constipate" government as a first priority.

The laxatives are: Leadership, Listening, Compromise and Action - in that order.

PRACTICAL REALITY IN GOVERNMENT FOR 2013

George Friedman at STRATFOR recently offered two commentaries on our nation and its future leader that we find worthy for consideration on the eve of the 2012 Elections.

PLEASE CLICK ON IMAGE ABOVE TO ENLARGE EXTRACTS AND DOWNLOAD COMPLETE ARTICLES BELOW

http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/purpose-presidential-debates?utm_source=freelist-f&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20121024&utm_term=gweekly&utm_content=readmore&elq=8924874ddc944edf9cb519320735b9a2

http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/character-policy-and-selection-leaders?utm_source=freelist-f&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20120904&utm_term=gweekly&utm_content=readmore&elq=b785529990204ebfbe83d08a9a9b9051

Mr. Friedman points to a practical reality.  Presidents manage as they must. The real issue for the winner of this election will arise when the Chinese and our other major creditors stop showing up at our bond auctions and our credit and credibility diminish to dysfunctional levels on the world stage.

Until then our stagnated, polarized, congress will kick the can down the road as they have with current legislation that postpones any consideration of the issues until after the election and lays the challenge off on Sequestration, due to begin in early January, 2013.

The new White House occupant (or the same one) will be just as bound and tied by the inability of our elected representatives to compromise. This situation is an economic illness.

We have seen a similar situation take down other countries in recent times and place them at the mercy of the international community.  It has threatened the financial future of Greece and other countries in Europe. 
 
Our country has caught a catchy illness of political diatribe and inaction.  Let us hope for some leadership in Congress that is driven by the practical reality of the world at large and is not based on the rarefied air of financial pocket-lining on the Washington D.C.  Beltway.  

The clock is ticking:

http://www.usdebtclock.org/