Slowing Down Government Contracting

(MoneyWatch)  One of the major complaints within the Federal Government about contracting is the length of time it takes to award a contract. This issue affects all types of contracts, whether it is is buying new jet fighter or pencils or hiring Scientific, Engineering, Technical and Analysis (SETA) contractors. The rules for a contract above a given size applied no matter what was being bought or how it was going to be used.

One of the ways that a fix was sought for all this was the use of General Services Administration (GSA) schedules and omnibus contracts with separate Task Orders. These are similar in that a company gets its service or good on the schedule with proper price justification. For labor like with a SETA contract a set of rates are established for different labor categories. Government offices then can buy the labor or good from the schedule knowing that the price has already been reviewed, justified and approved.

A task order of work supporting say an acquisition office is usually a twenty-thirty day turn around on the bid and award using the GSA Schedule rates. Compare this to a three to six month normal award process and you can see why this save time and money. Billions of dollars of contracts are awarded each year this way.

Now of course after careful review the Government Accountability Office (GAO) feels that these types of contracts are being abused. In a recent report they claim that these Time and Material support contracts are too risky for the government adding increased cost. They now want the government contracting officers to go through additional steps justifying the use of the GSA schedules over other contract types. This extra step will only delay the contract award.

Time and Material contracts are considered risky as they are an easy contract vehicle to add work and money too. This is true but that assumes that the original contract was not defined properly in terms of what was required and not the right mix or enough labor was bought. There is also a chance that work may be required to support a new effort or program. This would also lead to growth.

This is the history of contracting. The Federal Government comes up with an innovative way to speed up contracting. Then afraid of abuse or misuse they begin to tighten up the rules. Next there will be complaints about the length of time to award, and Congress is very aware of those, and a new idea will be created. Then the cycle starts again.