Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Introducing the Insider
The Industry Defined
HUBZones: Anyone Can Play
Beyond Reproach: The Incumbent's Bind
Breaking Wave: Human Resources BPO
Cooperative Personnel Services: Differentiating Not a Problem
Adventures in Marketing
Policy & Regs: Can We Satisfy the Appetite for Cleared Personnel?
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Posted on September 1
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Prof. Paul Light, best known in these parts for measuring the size of government, has come up with a stunning analysis of just how dysfunctional the government is. He's polite and well documented. He also lays little blame on contractors, but believes that contractors and their clients go to great lengths to keep the size of the contractor and grantee workforce "hidden." In a book well worth reading, we focused on the small part devoted to contracting and contractors.
SAIC is accused in whistleblower lawsuits every couple of years, or so, of cheating the government. The company typically settles and pays a few $ million, without admitting any wrongdoing or going through the travail of a trial. Here's a case that went to trial, and exposed a far weightier issue than alleged false claims for many firms in the industry.
In his Policy & Regs column, Alan Chvotkin serves up the import of the recent GAO review of DCAA's management and suggests ways for contractors to cope while the agency attempts to address strong criticism.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence served up authoritative numbers and estimates in the last week of August.
We continue to hear some otherwise savvy industry executives lull themselves into thinking that it's too costly and too much trouble for government to terminate contracts for convenience. GAO took an analytical look and found the conventional wisdom is wrong, but how this applies to the services business is uncertain.
(1) CIA drops MVM Inc. security support for overseas personnel; (2) the Railhead program to fix counterterrorism databases seems to be folding its contractor support.