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Sep 08, 2009

Comments

Dfens

I think it is "feel good" b.s. It does nothing about the real problems we're having with government procurement while providing the appearance of doing something. To that extent, I think it is worse than doing nothing.

In fact, all these whistle blower laws really seem to do is create a class of misfits who do nothing all day long but report perceived wrong doings. The mere fact that they've filed a report prevents them from being appropriately fired for not doing their jobs, but because of whistle blower protections they are exempt from the rules that cover the rest of the contributing workforce.

Go ahead and work on crap like this if you want, but if you ever decide to really do your job, you'll be a welcomed ally.

Neil Gordon

The point I was trying to make in this blog is that this new mandatory contarctor misconduct reporting rule is a good thing because it forces contractors to improve their ethics and compliance systems and to be more proactive in reporting and fixing contracting misbehavior. Stamp out the small problems before they grow into big ones.

The extent to which this rule will compel contractors "to provide a good product at a reasonable price and in the agreed upon time" reamins to be seen. But you can't deny that it's at least a positive step in the right direction.

Dfens

You think it was "mischarging" that boosted the F-22 and F-35 into the cost stratosphere? You just don't get it, do you?

Neil Gordon

Well, yes there are some pretty big "elephants" out there that this new rule probably came too late to fix, but let's hope this rule proves successful and can prevent these kinds of problems from occurring in the future. A minor labor mischarge today can balloon into millions of dollars in cost overruns years down the road. Let's hope the rule can nip that in the bud.

Dfens

Like hell. You're talking about trying to sweep up the peanut shells as the elephants go out the gate. Oooh, did someone mischarge their labor? Let's get them. Meanwhile F-22 cost $70 BILLION and took 25 years to develop and the $140 BILLION F-35 cost is making F-22 look like a bargain. Hell, F-22 cost twice as much to develop, cost twice as much per pound to build, and took twice as long to develop as the B-2. What are you doing about that? Oh yeah, nothing as usual.

Neil Gordon

Up until now, the cart always WAS after the horse. Without a mandatory reporting rule, small errors were allowed to fester until they became big False Claims Act-worthy matters. The new rule requires contractors to be more proactive, to catch the small stuff and fix it before it becomes a big problem for everybody -- the government, the contractor and the whistleblower.

Dfens

It seems to me like the cart should go after the horse. That is, we should change the rules so it is in the contractor's best interest to provide a good product at a reasonable price and in the agreed upon time first. Obviously not every contractor will behave in own best interest, so then we would naturally want to provide protection for those of their employees who point out their rule breaking as a secondary method of keeping contractors in line, not as the primary method. But that's just me, thinking.

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