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Originally Posted by ylwjacket
I am very close to government, deal with it day in and day out, some as a consultant, some as a contractor, some as independent oversight. Some, as a consultant trying to get something approved through the bureacracy. Some, as the child of a 40-year government employee.
Waste comes in many forms. I see it every day. Some of the stuff that you mentioned happens on a smaller scale at the state and local level.
The problem, IMHO, is not so much contractors to the government. It is vesting too much responsibility in large contractors. With the pool spread, there is competition, oversight, and pressure to do the right thing or lose your job. With one or two very large corporations, there is little incentive to innovate, oversight, or price competition.
How's that for a small business guy, who regularly competes with firms 100 or 1000 times our size?  |
I'm also a small business owner and I do some business with some government agencies. When I do business with them, I always have to go through the bidding process and they must receive at least 3 bids before they can award the contract. And unless they have a very good reason (i.e. much better product), they cannot award the contract to anyone but the lowest bid.
But for some reason, these rules go out the window when they are awarding the big multimillion dollar contracts. (my company's bids are usually for contracts in the $1,000 - $3,000 range).