Posted on 03/04/2009 11:05:24 AM PST by rabscuttle385
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is moving to overhaul the way the U.S. government awards contracts for work to be done by the private sector, saying there have been too many abuses of taxpayer money.
Obama joined Republican Sen. John McCain, his presidential campaign rival, and other congressional figures Wednesday to put his pen to an executive memorandum. The document essentially commits the administration to new marching orders for awarding such contracts, and Obama said that it could save up to $40 billion to $50 billion a year.
One area in particular that is targeted is no-bid contracts, which the administration is seeking to change so that there will be more competition for government-paid work.
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
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How can you target no-bid contracts while supporting big labor and racial set-asides?
Sure wish someone would come up with some concrete examples.
There is so much oversight in some of these contracts,you practically have to have a contracting officer accompany you to Lowes to buy nails.
Cost overruns in a weapons system??? No! Surely no one changed their minds about the initial dsign and hence cost.
Making good on his goal to keep jobs away from professional white male construction workers.
Now brown can stick around
yellow will be mellow
the red man can get a head, man
white will embrace what is right and finally
black won’t have to get back
Most of the no-bid contracts are for building established hardware.
So now, every time you build ten more Abrams tanks, a new factory will get to build them? By people who don’t have a ten-year “lessons learned” file?
What is to keep a shell company connected to our enemies from being formed and bidding on anything?
Don’t you have to send out the specs on any contract for the potential bidders to do their cost analysis?
What kinds of sensitive items would our enemies get access to?
Does this jerk in the Oval Office understand that there are some things that have to be made only by trusted companies here in the USA?
I don’t want China-Iran-N Korea-Russia-Gaza-India-Pakistan, etc. having ANY access to any specs on any Pentagon items or computer information items.
So now, every time you build ten more Abrams tanks, a new factory will get to build them? By people who don’t have a ten-year “lessons learned” file?”
Sure sounds like it.
Reparations—in another coak of wool.
Bet me that Blacks and minorities will get extra points for getting successful bids.
I don’t want to fly in an airplane built in China. Why would I want my military pilots, etc to have to do anything like that? We have enough jobs here in the USA that need to be filled and filled ONLY by experienced people.
Reminds me of the “Equalization of Opportunity” or the “Anti-dog-Eat-Dog” laws in Atlas Shrugs.
“How can you target no-bid contracts while supporting big labor and racial set-asides?”
They will target the “no-bid” contracts in right to work states. In other words, Texas is going to be thrown under the bus.
Well isn’t that just grand. New rules to learn.
Guess what I do for a living?
It will only add a layer of paper and markups....companies will joint venture or “sub” from a qualifying shell company.
There are sole source contracts, which were originally published for competitive bid as required by law and the subsequent market research proved there is no other qualified supplier for that particular item or service. There are follow on contracts for production, sometimes also classified as sole source, for items that were originally prototyped under RDT&E by a particular company under a competitive bid contract.
Bottom line...ALL contracts in excess of the SAT were originally awarded under a competitive bidding process. What comes of that process determines how that contract is handled in the future.
What really hacks me off is when the left spouts off about Halliburton getting no bid contracts when they competitively bid with several other companies on the LOGCAP procurement in 2001. LOGCAP was a multi-year ID/IQ supercontract under which task orders were issued for emergency services. These task orders are what they are referring to as "no bid" and that is just flat out a false statement. More info:
Byron York in National Review:Halliburton: The Bush/Iraq Scandal that Wasn’t
All aspects of federal contracting programs favoring minority-owned businesses have been turned upside down by an injunction issued by a judge in San Antonio.The order also affects historically black and Hispanic-serving universities, long reliant on federal military contracts, which now will have to compete for contracts previously reserved for them.
Issued Thursday by U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriquez, the injunction is the culmination of a decadelong lawsuit filed by a San Antonio company that successfully challenged the constitutionality of minority preferences in the military and space programs.
The U.S. Justice Department decided not to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court by a Feb. 2 deadline, making the military's and NASA's minority-contracting program unconstitutional.
This had me jumping for joy!
ravingnutter, if I’ve ever seen a post that deserves it’s own thread, it’s this one!
I agree- and Obama knows this too.
He’s going to go after established production contracts and sole-source contracts, IMO, and will use the general public’s lack of experience with the arcane aspects of govt contracts for a propaganda push to justify his actions. His campaign speeches made it clear he plans to limit development and production of of military gear.
I’ve spent the last 23 years as a contractor doing contract administration and procurement for the USAF under RDT&E contracts. I get really frustrated when Government contractors get a bad name because some liberal spouts off when they don’t have a clue about the facts. I have the feeling that Obummer is going to get quite a bit of opposition on his “policy changes” from the Pentagon and won’t be able to implement his plans as much as he would like to.
Actually, there are no-bid contracts. They’re called “sole source contracts” and they happen evrey day. Just ask the Alaskan Native Corporations (thanks Uncle Ted!!! Enjoy jail). They receive hundreds of millions (if not billions)of dollars in sole source contracts per year.
That guy is truly an idiot.
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