Portal
Home
Calendar
Gallery
FAQ
Search
Register
Log inDo defense contractors protest too much?
Page 1 of 1•
Do defense contractors protest too much?
by Outspoken on Fri May 23, 2008 7:26 pm
Do defense contractors protest too much?
By RICHARD LARDNER
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Quit complaining.
That's the message from the Pentagon and Congress to defense companies that cry foul when they don't win contracts.
Resolving the protests costs the government time and money. That means it can take longer to build needed combat gear or buy critical supplies, making U.S. troops and American taxpayers the real losers.
Far more often than not, the complainers don't win anyway, according to statistics from the Government Accountability Office.
Military spending has increased dramatically since 2001, and so have the challenges to procurement decisions made by the Defense Department.
It's become a big enough problem that the House Armed Services Committee has raised the possibility of fining companies that submit "frivolous or improper" protests to the GAO. Complaining has become too reflexive, the committee says in a May 16 report, and it wants to discourage contractors from lodging protests as a "stalling or punitive tactic."
At the same time, John Young, the Pentagon's acquisition chief, has urged the military branches to be more up front with their contractors so there are fewer surprises when work is awarded. If a company knows its proposal doesn't measure up, Young reasoned, it will be less likely to gripe afterward.
"Protests are extremely detrimental to the warfighter and the taxpayer," Young wrote in a memo to the secretaries of the military branches. The memo did not state the financial impact of the problem, however.
The GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, is seeking a nearly $40 million increase to its budget from last year's level of $507 million. Comptroller General Gene Dodaro, the office's top administrator, told a Senate subcommittee in late April the boost is needed to deal with a steadily growing workload that includes a greater number of contract protests.
Determining a frivolous or vindictive protest from a legitimate one is tricky business, though. In February, the Air Force selected a European-led consortium for a $35 billion contract to build aerial refuelers. Lawmakers who backed the competing bid by the Boeing Co. cheered the Chicago-based company's move to challenge what the choice.
Boeing has argued the Air Force changed its method for evaluating the tanker it wanted after asking for proposals. That allowed a larger tanker offered by the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. and its U.S. partner, Northrop Grumman Corp., to beat Boeing's offer, the company said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080523/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/defense_contractor_complaints;_ylt=AuK.feVk.CLJFBMIY2pJyvSs0NUE
By RICHARD LARDNER
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Quit complaining.
That's the message from the Pentagon and Congress to defense companies that cry foul when they don't win contracts.
Resolving the protests costs the government time and money. That means it can take longer to build needed combat gear or buy critical supplies, making U.S. troops and American taxpayers the real losers.
Far more often than not, the complainers don't win anyway, according to statistics from the Government Accountability Office.
Military spending has increased dramatically since 2001, and so have the challenges to procurement decisions made by the Defense Department.
It's become a big enough problem that the House Armed Services Committee has raised the possibility of fining companies that submit "frivolous or improper" protests to the GAO. Complaining has become too reflexive, the committee says in a May 16 report, and it wants to discourage contractors from lodging protests as a "stalling or punitive tactic."
At the same time, John Young, the Pentagon's acquisition chief, has urged the military branches to be more up front with their contractors so there are fewer surprises when work is awarded. If a company knows its proposal doesn't measure up, Young reasoned, it will be less likely to gripe afterward.
"Protests are extremely detrimental to the warfighter and the taxpayer," Young wrote in a memo to the secretaries of the military branches. The memo did not state the financial impact of the problem, however.
The GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, is seeking a nearly $40 million increase to its budget from last year's level of $507 million. Comptroller General Gene Dodaro, the office's top administrator, told a Senate subcommittee in late April the boost is needed to deal with a steadily growing workload that includes a greater number of contract protests.
Determining a frivolous or vindictive protest from a legitimate one is tricky business, though. In February, the Air Force selected a European-led consortium for a $35 billion contract to build aerial refuelers. Lawmakers who backed the competing bid by the Boeing Co. cheered the Chicago-based company's move to challenge what the choice.
Boeing has argued the Air Force changed its method for evaluating the tanker it wanted after asking for proposals. That allowed a larger tanker offered by the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. and its U.S. partner, Northrop Grumman Corp., to beat Boeing's offer, the company said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080523/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/defense_contractor_complaints;_ylt=AuK.feVk.CLJFBMIY2pJyvSs0NUE
"Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything."
Plato (427-347 BC)
Plato (427-347 BC)
