I still maintain that the Federal Government is trying to do the People's work in a fraud free manner and usually succeeding. But, that is just my experience. Below is a comment from a person who has seen contracting in the Air Force, the Marine Corps, the IRS and BATF.
Do you hear stories about bad, even rotten, apples in our business? Yes. But, the likes of Major John Cockerham and Major Charles J. Bowie, Jr, et al. are few and far between. [Not to mention She, who must not be named.] Do you hear the stories about the good, honest hard-working apples in our business? No. There are 147,705 people in the Defense Statutory Acquisition Workforce, as of 1 December 2010. That's not even counting the thousands of support contractors. In fiscal year 2009, we, the DoD, accomplished 3,553,207 contract actions, enlisting the contractual efforts of thousands of companies around the globe. Is there fraud, waste, and abuse? Yes. Do we try to find it and rip it out by its roots? You bet. Do we wish there was none? Absolutely. Unfortunately, last time I checked, we were still living outside of the Garden of Eden, and some use their free will in the wrong-headed exercise of the freedom they have been granted.That said, corruption does exist, and not just in our fair Commonwealth. Here is an article from yesterday's Baltimore Sun on one DoD organization (The National Security Agency—sometimes referred to as No Such Agency) that has a number of contractor prosecutions under its belt (or the belt of the Baltimore US Attorney.
On the other hand, if you'd like to compare the DoD's 147,705 to another Federal Government organization that only has 535, then . . . .
The article states:
The Baltimore Sun identified 11 defendants accused within the past five years of bilking the agency. Nine of the cases were filed in the past two years, even though some of the alleged crimes reach back to the late 1990s and mid-2000s.The cases are listed in the article. In one of the cases, the defendants admitted their guilt when taking a lie detector test in order to get a security clearance to obtain more contracts. I put that down to lack of judgement.
While you may say the glass is half empty, I say it is half full, and that efforts to "make it better" may actually, over the long run, make it worse. It is my belief that to the degree we drive people down Maslow's "Hierarchy of Needs", to that degree we make them less engaged and more like automatons, and thus the higher the chances that creativity and initiative will be lacking. That is to say, if you treat people like they are incapable of independent thought and action, that is what you will get. They will be stuck at the level of "Love and Belonging" and will not advance to "Esteem" and then to "Self-actualization". The problem with self-actualization is that sometimes a person will go off the rails.
Regards — Cliff
5 comments:
I should hope you are not trying to imply that creating a standard of disclosure for political campaign contribution among organizations plying for government contracts might "drive people down Maslow's hierarchy of needs".
We're not talking about a witch hunt, or even a suggestion that contractors are anything but honest. We are talking about providing the people with additional means to judge the merits and impartiality of legislative decisions. If anything, this is targeted at legislators, NOT contractors. In any case, as with CORI checks and other public-interest need-to-knows, transparency is never a poor objective.
I guess if your concern is earmarks and the likes of the late John Murtha or Robert Byrd, a list of political contributions by the bidding firms might be OK, if the Unions organizing the bidder's plant also had to provide a list.
Regards — Cliff;
I find the paranoia about unions as an excuse not to properly regulate corporations to be both naive and disingenuous. As a dem-loathing independent, it's ridiculous to hear as an objection and/or reason to delay implementation and enforcement. It's like saying we shouldn't better regulate unions because corporations are getting away with economic murder. both are utter nonsense.
I think the idea that Unions are not players when it comes to earmarks is the naive part. I am betting that when the late Senator Kennedy was lobbying for keeping the F-35 "Second Source" engine alive (GE at Lynn) the Unions were whispering in his ear just like GE and the sub-contractors.
I would like to note that I support a "Second Source" for the F-35 engine. An engine competition worked for the F-16, lowering unit cost and improving performance.
And, this brings up the question as to if "Earmarks" are wrong or even corrupt?
As for delaying the law making its way through Congress, I don't think adding "Unions" would have much impact on the final vote date.
And, once it is passed, the bill still won't impact what happens with regard to Commonwealth Contracts. What do the Three Musketeers say about our own laws? Do we think that there will be that transparency in State Contracts, which seem to me to be fairly corrupt, at least with regard to software.
So, to summarize my position.
1) Unions are involved in encouraging Congresspersons to earmark contracts.
2) Asking for transparency for Union contributions to Congresspersons should not be a big deal.
3) Making public, campaign contributions will probably not end the practice of "Earmarks", which is often what passes for corruption in the Acquisition Dodger.
4) The problem in our Commonwealth seems to be much bigger than the Federal Problem, but a trial of the House Speaker aside, does not seem to be getting much attention.
Regards — Cliff
All fair points, but the point you continue to ignore is that you are advocating a free pass for corporations (contractors) here, not proposing we better regulate unions. The dodge of better regulating unions is only offered once it's suggested that we need to better regulate corporations.
Better regulation of lobbying of all sorts is needed. You will get no argument from me that labor unions need attention. But to use that as an excuse not to do the right thing where corporations are concerned is pure "two wrongs make a right" nonsense.
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