Since the November elections, the hot topic around Washington D.C. has been oversight of government contracts. Many new congressional committee chairs, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), industry associations, and watchdogs are either anticipating or dreading the new Congress’s pending oversight efforts.
Late last night, the 1423 Panel – a group of contracting experts established by Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA) to study how well the federal government is buying services – released its “Draft Final Report” (pdf). After sitting through nearly all of the Panel’s 30-some meetings and assisting the Panel in its mission (pdf), I’m looking forward to reading the 421-page study to see the Panel’s take on how well the government is spending $380 billion each year, or at least the $220 billion spent on government services (pdf). (Side note – the Panel’s meeting were publicized in the Federal Register, open to the public, and the Panel’s web site includes meeting materials and minutes, so there may not be too many surprises.)
It is clear that Rep. Davis’s Panel hasn’t merely rubber-stamped the many acquisition reforms that the Congressman has passed over the years. And with Rep. Waxman (D-CA) – one of the few Members of Congress who has pushed for genuine oversight on Capitol Hill – ready to take over the House Committee on Government Reform, Davis has provided Waxman and taxpayers with a great holiday present. If the new Congress is honest about its call for contract oversight, this is the car with the giant big red bow of which it has been waiting.
Although POGO would have liked to see the Panel go even further in many of its recommendations, we think that the Panel has opened the door for Congress to improve how the feds spend our money. Additionally, the Panel has provided a level of satisfaction to those of us who have been pointing out that, at times, the system fails to protect American taxpayers.
-- Scott Amey
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was to ensure that all have equal
rights. The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights in the United
States Department of Agriculture is an office delegated to enforce
civil rights laws for the Department. There have been numerous public
writings about how Black Farmers were treated by USDA and how their civil
rights complaint processing within the Office of the Assistant
Secretary for Civil Rights has been mishandled. What is not known by the
public is how the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights
mistreats their own employees. Employees are mistreated so badly that some
have been hospitalized for stress, fired, and treated without dignity and
respect. If these employees are mistreated, you can imagine how it
impacts the processing of Black farmers civil rights complaints and
employee complaints. For that very reason a total of 60 minority employees
since 2004 to present have either been terminated or forced into
retirement or detailed to other agencies or lateral to new positions
in other agencies.
No one has ever gotten to a root cause analysis of why Civil Rights
management at United States Department of Agriculture Assistant
Secretary for Civil Rights is so dysfunctional.
Something MUST be done about management within the Office of the
Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights or else taxpayers will continue to
make enormous settlement payments for civil rights violations as in the Black Farmers Class Action Lawsuit and these employees will continue to be violated.
Farm Bill
http://agriculture.house.gov/inside/Legislation/110/FB/TitleXI.pdf
Posted by: beyced | Jul 24, 2007 at 06:48 AM
Which country has more children living in severe poverty -
Mexico or the USA?
Mexico: Approximately 9,100,000 children (0-14 years) live in severe poverty.
U.S.A.: Approximately 13,000,000 children (0-14 years) live in severe poverty.
The most powerful and richest nation on earth has more children living in severe poverty than Mexico.
Family Focus USA
PO Box 789
Milton, WA 98354
Phone: (253) 777-4415
www.nextrevolution.net
Would like to point out that at over $160,000 a year our reprentatives made over $1,500 a day for the 103 days worked last year in Congress.
They, along with the White House, & US Senate have the US holding a $9 trillion debt, war in Iraq in which many less fortunate Americans are fighting in order to get a college education. They are getting an education I hope they pass along should they live.
Social Security, Medicare, & Medicaid, going broke, illgeal immigration promoted by the same mis-representation as a favor to corporate un-America in return for campaign contributions to hold down wages while promoting poverty. A failure driving prescription drug & health care cost out of reach to everyone who isn't a representative of the people.
Americans won't do those jobs, jobs Americans did in the seventies when they paid $12 an hour yet only pay $9 an hour to an illegal immigrant who can't report the abuse. The dept. of labor doesn't work for the American taxpayer any more than the illegal immigrants.
Check out Nextrev. as I answered a letter from the corporate office at the company where I worked. I reported what appeared to be fraud, kickbacks in the transportation of dairy product in the highly subsidized dairy industry!
I reported filth in transportation & warehousing of dairy products sold at several fast food & grocery outlets to the USDA & many local politicians. While the media write articles of food poisoning & E. Coli they won't look into Darigold in the Northwest US. McDonalds, Burger King, CostCo, Paul's & Ridley's markets, WINCO, Albersons, Dean Foods & more!
Our represnetatives who accept campaign contributions won't either, wonder why?
People in education, including parents & students beg for their own tax $ to fund education while corporate un-America makes out like a bandit, the same tax $, pennies on the dollar in return for campaign contributions.
If people in education promoted, implimented sites like POGO into the education system, teach the future of tomorrow why they don't have enough $ for education, they could have all the $ they need.
Prove what education is really capable of rather than begging for your own tax $ while teaching the future that begging is the only way to get a few $, just enough to keep the average American out of bankruptcy.
Do the math, $9 trillion divided by 300,000,000. Is dying in Iraq really worth your share of that debt when you pay someone over $1,500 a day for a lousy 103 days a year to fail? They give your tax $ to campaign contributors who make millions if not billions in return for what amounts to pennies on the $?
You provide a fine salary, health care, & retirment which you lose more of the same everyday. Minimum wage is $5.15 an hour, the least amount of buying power in 50 years. List all the failing government programs & agnecies you pay for. Put it all through the education system & do the math. What kind of deal is that?
Not one of the corporations which contribute to the campaigns of your representatives would remain solvent if run as those representatives run America!
America is the largest corporation in the world, millions of city, county, state, & federal employees.
How is it your representatives give tax cuts & incentives under the guise of job creation when those jobs pay minimum wage with no benefits? Tax cuts you, as the employer of the largest corporation, shareholder in the largest corporation with family fighting & dying in Iraq absorb.
Your employees, representatives, make a fine wage, retirement, & benefits such as health care? You provide more jobs than any if not more than all the corporations together yet your pay the taxes they evade through campaign contributions. You're paying to lose!
Washington DC is the best ally terrorist could ever want or dream of having. Corporate un-America while making billions is breaking the average American! What is America about?
The constitution says, We the People. For some reason I don't believe that holds true in 2006. Are the American people willing to jump start the American Revolution which evidently was never finished. It's 2006, the 21st century, you don't have to pick up a gun, fire at anyone, or be fired upon. All you have to do is use your head!
Get on Nextrev. www.nextrevolution.net
Post ideas, support ideas, & help put government in it's place
Working for US!
If millions of people, taxpayers supported an idea like, taxing campaign contributions. Would you have $ for education should a substancial amount of that tax was designated to education? Could Social Security, Medicare, & Medicaid be shored up? Could tax relief be realized?
Would you hire a roofer to shingle your house if he didn't have insurance? Why elect a politicians who isn't insured or bonded? They aren't working for you if they give tax cuts to campaign contributors in return for a vacation to golf in Scotland. Another idea on Nextrev. Politicians must be bonded or insured.
300,000,000 Americans have well over 300,000,000 ideas, they don't or can't all work but there are many which if supported by enough taxpayers would. The tax $ wasted by proficient incompetence, government waste, & corruption could be working for US rather than lost through bureacratic
waste, corruption, & incompetence. Use the education you promote!
Regardless of what some say, 9/11 was preventable, illegal immigration has gone on uneccessarliy & promoted for years, war in iraq was avoidable, & government waste, $ we could be using? There is something you can do. You just have to do it.
The battle cry of America seems to be "There's nothing you can dooo."
I don't believe it! Let's kick these deadbeat politicians in the butt & put them back to work for America, the American people fighting & dying in Iraq to protect US!
Posted by: Scott Tisthammer | Dec 28, 2006 at 01:24 PM
One of the best ways to improve buying is to eliminate GSA schedules for services. The USG needs only to buy products and occasional services. The whole "inherently governmental" view is a just a cover for outsourcing to the ole boys network
Also, Isn't David (how much is that building in the window) Safavian's wife still employed by the Hon. Senator Davis?
Posted by: Bondo | Dec 26, 2006 at 09:57 PM
When a Panel like this, which is stacked with people hand-picked by the Administration (including people approved by David Safavian, the convicted former OFPP Administrator) comes up with a report that is mildly critical of the acquisition system, and more specifically of “acquisition reform,” you know that something “is rotten in Denmark.” Imagine what might have resulted if this group had included a more reasonable balance of view points?
Maybe it’s time for the Administration, and the supporters of “acquisition reform” of all political stripes, to acknowledge that the “acquisition reform” movement was nothing but naked corporate welfare masquerading as “good government,” and one of the biggest public policy debacles of the past fifty years.
Posted by: Connie the Contractor | Dec 22, 2006 at 02:21 PM