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Mar 29, 2012

Comments

Dfens

Back when the US Navy designed their own ships we had a 600 ship Navy. Now that we contract out their design we can't even keep 300 ships afloat. Clearly we need to outsource more? When NASA designed their own rockets we made going to the Moon look routine. Now we can't even get to our own space station without renting a ride from the Russians. Government contractors are robbing us blind! They are nothing but leaches. If they were worth a damn, they'd be competing in the free market.

fe0li0cif0ic0


Dear Sir or Madam;
Instead of the government paying the contractors at one time, Why don't they spread the payment out? If it was a 2 year contract, why don't the government pay them for the first 6 months in advance. Like a payment. Then pay them for the next 6 months.With a 3% cost over run.And so on. When the Government pays the last 6 months in advance the company has 6 months to finish the contract. If they have not finished the contract, make the company finish the contract on their own dime.
Sincerely Yours
fe0li0cif0ic0

Bronto

Mr. Chatterjee's thoughts are pedestrian. Just as contracting failures are legion and are caused by both company and government behaviors, there is a 50-foot shelf of diagnostic, analytic, and forward-looking studies of contracting failures and what needs to be done.

Mr. C's thoughts contain nothing original and are very tactical. They would/will be easily defeated by both government and industry people who like the status quo and successfully block most changes. There is no political will to fix these problems, especially because the finger of blame is so easily and understandably pointing back at government--both executive agencies and Congress.

To achieve breakthrough, we need to have a few cases where government miscreants who invited problems fired, and if warranted, prosecuted for their negligence and waste of taxpayer funds. On the contractor side, DOJ and USAs and the FBI need to stop namby pamby investigations and prosecutions and go after the hiding-in-plain-sight contractor atrocities. The best cases will be those where the connivance of government and contractor are pursued in the same investigation and prosecution. Even a few jail sentences will do wonders.

It may surprise many, but deliberate fraud is hardly the problem. Rather, it is the colossal mismanagement and negligence that does the majority of the damage, almost always with no penalty for government or contractor miscreants.

Focus: airborne platforms, IT systems, operational support for national security agencies

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