Hey, I am all for trying to clean up this industry. I really am, and much of my research goes towards bettering my little niche of an industry.
But when will Webb, McCaskill, Waxman and company take a critical look at the way the government manages these contracts? I will admit poor leadership in my industry, but when will they admit that the government has done a terrible job in managing these contracts and applying quality control?
To me, this is like saying ‘hey, build my house, and I am going to go to Mexico for a year, and when I get back that thing better be perfect’. I would never dream of building a house like that, and of course there would be problems if you are not actively involved with the process, or have someone you trust watching over the process. The government leadership involved in managing us, must also be questioned and held to some accountability too.
And what is government leadership? Figure out what you want us to do, hash out all the loose ends and legalities, call us when you need us, and actually apply quality control and management over the whole thing. If you need more oversight manpower, then hire more federal managers to do so. It’s as if there is this moral disengagement in government, and you just don’t want to admit fault or deal with a problem that could lead to deaths. I say deaths, because this is a war, and people have died because of poor government contracting practices.
When someone gets electrocuted in a shower, that was built by a contractor that cut corners, whose fault is that? Is it the government’s fault for not insuring that shower was built to a standard, or was it that contractor’s fault for building it as cheaply as possible so the government could save money and that company could actually make money? Like I said, the government has been absent in the ‘caring department’, and there have been victims do to that moral disengagement.
Now I am not calling for micro-management, I am just calling for the government to get involved with the contracts, and apply quality control. The government would also be ill served to try to stymie the power of a free market with these companies as well. The best they can do, is make sure all the companies are playing by the same set of rules, and the contracts are managed fairly and consistently.
Profit making is also a part of what makes business thrive, so I don’t really understand the logic of demonizing this concept. Every businessman starts a company, with the idea of making money and succeeding. To take that away, takes away the one force that drives business to be the best. That’s unless government want’s business to be more like them? But that is a whole different topic…..
We have stepped up and answered the call when this country reached out during their time of need. We provided a service, and some companies did better than others in that endeavor. I admit we have our problems, but with the war and disasters like Katrina, we stepped up and did a service that the government could not provide on it’s own. The least the government could do is care enough to make sure the job is done right, at the time it is being done, as opposed to dealing with a poorly built house when they come back from Mexico. Just my two cents on the whole deal. –Matt
——————————————————————
Congress looks to clean up contractors
By: Jen DiMascio
February 12, 2009 04:51 AM EST
Defense contractors blamed for waste, fraud and abuse — and even for some civilian casualties in Iraq — are now facing a new Congress intent on cleaning up the mess.
The contractors are contrite about their mistakes, making the case that not all of them are created evil.
“We have millions of transactions every year that work,” said Alan Chvotkin, a senior vice president for the Professional Services Council, a contractors trade group. But missteps by KBR, Blackwater USA and Hurricane Katrina contractors stand out, he said.
“We’re colored by the failures,” he said.
Congress already is engaging on the issue.
The bipartisan Commission on Wartime Contracting, pushed into law by Democratic Sens. Jim Webb of Virginia and Claire McCaskill of Missouri, recently held its first hearing. And the Senate Homeland Security Committee has launched an ad hoc subcommittee on contracting oversight, under the direction of McCaskill, a former state auditor who has made contracting accountability one of her trademark issues.
