Last month, we wrote about the federal government’s growing reliance on contractors. It seems POGO is not alone in feeling uneasy about contractors gradually usurping the role of civil servants in performing “inherently governmental” functions.
Prompted by the same Government Accountability Office (pdf) report that inspired POGO’s blog entry, Federal Computer Week recently posed the question, “Do agencies rely too much on contractors?” to readers on the FCW Forum blog. As FCW reported yesterday, the question “touched a nerve.” They received over a dozen responses, many from people who claimed to be long-term federal employees, and most of which echoed POGO’s concerns. There were first-hand accounts of the government losing institutional knowledge, lax oversight of contractors, contractors feeling pressured to put their employer’s interests ahead of the government’s, and doubts about whether outsourcing is ultimately cheaper and more efficient.
On the other hand, there are still many who believe, as a commenter on POGO’s blog wrote, that “competitive sourcing is the only way to get government under control.” To outsource or not to outsource – the debate continues.
-- Neil Gordon
Hey, things are just ducky.
Monsieur Paul Denett would like the IGs to be called off because they are just too nasty, making things too hot for government program managers. PMs are supposed to be kick-ass kind of people, Paul. Hey, pick up the government employee organ of choice, FCW, and read all about it. If the PMs can't absorb a little probing well and respond sensibly to a few questions about what they did and whether it was in accord with the rules, then where the hell are we? What are you, some kind of Lurita fan? Prof. K would say: no one is allowed to ask them tough questions. We would say to Prof. K: "You can't handle the truth" about contractors and government civil servants, all in the same hottub of big green.
Who you gonna call, Paul? We'll just have to call some more contractors in, I guess. Only the usual suspects, so there will be no full-and-open, just three-card Marvin FAR Part 15 double-draw pokerchino. Three bids will do, but go light on the Vermouth. Oh, I am dating myself, whatever.
As for Sharkgirl, you seem to be fighting the good fight down south. You should make a pact with POGO. Maybe they will help you carry the torch.
As for Professor Steven the K, if he has sobered up from his recent starring role at the bonfire of the vanities of the dreary govt contracting biz, maybe he will not stiff=arm the taxpayers and let someone hold the government employees accountable for something, like their own or contractor selections and performances. Steverino needs to give the taxpayers a break. Paul the D sure as hell sounds like the good professor is writing the script for him. (Does Paul speak Svedish, too, ya?) Caramba!
Posted by: DeathBeforeDisclosure | Nov 08, 2007 at 09:04 AM
Where is the oversight of mandatory programs?
Posted by: After | Nov 08, 2007 at 08:36 AM
Hey, things are just ducky.
Monsieur Paul Denett would like the IGs to be called off because they are just too nasty, making things too hot for government program managers. PMs are supposed to be kick-ass kind of people, Paul. Hey, pick up the government employee organ of choice, FCW, and read all about it. If the PMs can't absorb a little probing well and respond sensibly to a few questions about what they did and whether it was in accord with the rules, then where the hell are we? What are you, some kind of Lurita fan? Prof. K would say: no one is allowed to ask them tough questions. We would say to Prof. K: "You can't handle the truth" about contractors and government civil servants, all in the same hottub of big green.
Who you gonna call, Paul? We'll just have to call some more contractors in, I guess. Only the usual suspects, so there will be no full-and-open, just three-card Marvin FAR Part 15 double-draw pokerchino. Three bids will do, but go light on the Vermouth. Oh, I am dating myself, whatever.
As for Sharkgirl, you seem to be fighting the good fight down south. You should make a pact with POGO. Maybe they will help you carry the torch.
As for Professor Steven the K, if he has sobered up from his recent starring role at the bonfire of the vanities of the dreary govt contracting biz, maybe he will not stiff=arm the taxpayers and let someone hold the government employees accountable for something, like their own or contractor selections and performances. Steverino needs to give the taxpayers a break. Paul the D sure as hell sounds like the good professor is writing the script for him. (Does Paul speak Svedish, too, ya?) Caramba!
Posted by: DeathBeforeDisclosure | Nov 07, 2007 at 11:13 PM
Steve Kelman is right! Accountability equals slavery!
Posted by: | Nov 07, 2007 at 01:38 PM
Dear Readers, 11/7/2007
Even though I agree that we all are trying to find better solutions, I disagree in part with KSBR. To sacrifice Lives and/or wasteful, defective and/or corrupt products and/or systems for a (biased if not frivilous and/or fraudulent) accounting report(s) is in no ones best interest, especially long term best interest. There appears to be a unanimous census that our Immigration, Health Care, Education, Judicial System etc. are in failure and recently in a Democratic Debate with many US Senators ther where no objections to one Senators remarks as to one of these issues. Also and briefly seemingly many other US High crimes and Misdeamoners that have yet to be brought to action and/or forum by our US legislatures. Also and briefly there have finally been recent years of Congressional and Senatorial Testimony as to seemingly overwhelming Fraud, Waste and Abuse and allegations of many High Crimes and Misdeamoners by our US Executive Branch and others.
Again, "How can you have a forthright and viable Democracy and Accountability if the facts are corrupted, subverted, innappropriately secret, frivilous and/or unavailable to be heard?? The answer is Obvious!!
Thank you and all for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Axel
Posted by: Axel | Nov 07, 2007 at 12:52 PM
KSBR, I'm already seeing that contractors are being kicked in to the sunset. The government is blaming them and claiming immunity, while they are blaming the government and trying to get out of litigtion. I'm caught in the middle as a pro se litigant. My cases were not this complex when I started, but the filing of one case unravelled things people at the base didn't want uncovered.
I now have the deposition of one government employee who thinks there's nothing wrong with letting contractors do his job. And another government employee who testified to giving my company plans to my competitor. She also has interviewed another competitor's employees on behalf of the one she awarded the contract to, telling them they need to go work for her 8a selected company instead. Since when did government people get to yank employees from one company, interview them, and give them to a pet company of the government? I guess I have a lot to learn.
The commander of the base is trying to calm down Warner Robins concerning closure, but people like me (and others contacting the media) are fed up with the corruption. I know why my company plans were blackballed. I was, and still am a threat to the contractors who are running RAFB. What I don't understand is why aren't more people challenging the government? I watch as one company after another puts up with the select few contractors in controll.
When I chose not to back down, I was offered bribes. I was threatened. I have emails from a robins.af.mil address telling me what will happen if I don't drop my protest, or agree to exclude the pet corporation as a defendant in my case. I had a government person meet me in an empty house, telling me my lawsuit will expose corruption at the base and people will go to jail. She wanted to know how much it will cost to make my lawsuit go away.
I've been told now that i'll be the scapegoat if RAFB is shut down. I'm not backing down. I was told I needed to carry a gun for my protection because violence was coming to me. These contractors mean business and the government is not stopping them. They have bottomless pits of money to work with, and I've ticked them off. I've already lost my home and business, but they keep coming at me. I keep fighting back. I hope sooner or later someone with some power will take notice and put an end to this, but until that happens, I'm doing the best to stay in litigation for as long as I can.
In the meantime, the government will not hold the contractors accountable and have testified for them, even though I have evidence of wrongdoing.
Posted by: SharkGirl | Nov 07, 2007 at 12:43 PM
Neil,
Of course a nerve was touched. FCW's circ is around 80 percent feds. Although the FCW comments are not statistically valid, they are plausible. The feds are defensive, but a desire to get rid of contract support is not defensible.
Someone once said that citizens get the kind of govt that they deserve. Over decasdes of leadership of both parties, the fed govt has shed expertise and a lot of capacity (most labor commodities ,freely available in the private sector) by design, with political backing and citizen/taxpayer implicit approval, and with billions saved (see applicable GAO report on the savings; if POGO wants to trash GAO's figures, you should not use GAO to support your conclusions on other topics).
Further, it is far fetched to think the taxpayers want to restaff the government with hundreds of thousands of new federal positions. That's like putting 100 lbs of (you fill the blank) into a 10 lb. bag. Can't be done. So we as a country, we resort to the labor market and entrepeneurship as the economy and society serve them up. That means contractors.
Over time, contractor staff, especially the butts-in-seats variety, look more and more like they are one and the same as feds, and that's no surprise. And contractors will appear (emphasis: appear) to cost more, but they are more cost-effective because they don't have all the government BS and overhead that is never counted in comparison.s This is why the unions hate them. They displace membership headcount, and they appear to get paid more, but they do more. And they can replaced or the contract terminated at a whim. Try that, even with a junior employee of the US Government.
The good news for POGO is that w contractors remaining in place, and growing in number, unlike the press vis-a-vis Richard Nixon, you will have contractors to kick around, into the sunset.
KSBR
Posted by: KSBR | Nov 07, 2007 at 11:41 AM
I think contractors control the government. At Robins Air Force Base, they are given full rights to negotiate on behalf of the government. In fact, a government person testified in his depostion that he relies on a certain corporation (a Fortune 500 company) to do his work for him. This corporation botched contract negotiations with me and I'm in three courts right now fighting it. I'm getting ready to file an amended complaint for violations of the Sherman Act.
This company not only acts on behalf of the government, but the government protects them. Go figure.
I blogged here about this: Should Corporations Be Allowed to Represent the Government?
Posted by: SharkGirl | Nov 06, 2007 at 10:23 PM