There's a new (gov contracting) blogger in town

So there is a new blogger in town – Government Inc. written by Robert O'Harrow Jr., who is a reporter on the Washington Post's business staff. As the WP describes him, O'Harrow "focuses on government contracting, fraud, waste and abuse."

And yesterday O'Harrow posted about Steve Kelman and POGO.

For months they have been slinging invective, intellectual mud and all sorts of rhetorical detritus at one another. Can a procurement debate get any better?

At odds are Steve Kelman, a Harvard professor and the architect of procurement reform a decade ago, and Danielle Brian, the executive director of the Project On Government Oversight and a sharp critic of Kelman's reforms.

Their dispute began in April after Kelman wrote an op-ed piece in the Washington Post disparaging the hawk-eyed culture of inspectors general, who are constantly watching federal agencies for evidence of contracting fraud, waste and abuse.

Kelman said IGs are too negative and do not promote creativity in finding ways to make government work better. He said "the IG culture has undermined public management. That is bad for good government."

That was too much for Brian. Her group is deeply suspicious of contractors and the government's growing reliance on them. In the POGO blog, she blamed Kelman's procurement ideas for making the government vulnerable to abuses.