Update,10:40 a.m.: The President has made the big contracting reform announcement. He called the government’s contracting system “broken” and said it was “plagued by massive cost overruns and outright fraud.” He added: We need more competition for contracts and more oversight when they’re carried out. Ending the “unnecessary” use of sole-source and cost-based contracts, ensuring that government work isn’t improperly outsourced and opening more contracts to small businesses will save the government $40 billion of the $500 billion spent on contracts annually by increasing competition and reducing waste, he said. These estimated cost savings are part of the $2 trillion…
Browsing: contracting
The Senate, in what feels like its 7,000 hour of voting on amendments to the stimulus bill, just approved requiring competitive bidding for federal contracts. The amendment, introduced by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., passed 97-0 Friday afternoon, a monumental show of support from both Republicans and Democrats who have been concerned about oversight of the stimulus. The amendment to the Senate version of the bill will require “all contracts, grants and cooperative agreements awarded under this act to be competitively bid.” Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., said such an amendment is critical to ensuring money is responsibly spent. The temptation to…
The Air Force is looking to employ some live birds–falcons to be precise– to protect its metal ones, the Washington Post reported today. The enemy: other birds. Apparently, small birds, like songbirds, pigeons or Magpies, fly in the vicinity of U.S. military aircraft at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, posing a hazard that they’ll be ingested in the planes’ engines and disable them. The Post reports 125 “bird strikes” in the last year, up from 78 the year before. So far, other traditional means of bird control, such as firing shotguns, have not worked. If the military awards the contract,…
Bet your bottom dollar that the Small Business Administration’s second annual report card on the government’s use of small businesses in procurement will come out tomorrow. We say this because we’ve been told there is a press conference on that very topic, so it’s a pretty safe bet. The report cards grade agencies on how well they’ve met their individual goals for contracting with small businesses. These goals are often above and beyond the governmentwide goal of 23 percent, which is set by statute. Last year, SBA reported 12 agencies got red scores indicating they failed to reach their goals…