Reader comment roundup: Competitive sourcing as the gateway to scams, and more comments

Regarding "Interior faulted on small-business contracts": Lazy, incompetent, or a bias towards big business...yup, sounds like our government!
Anonymous

Regarding "DHS' blended workforce worries senators": It would be interesting to see what companies these contractors work for to determine if their participation in the Department's procurement process creates organizational and personal conflicts of interest.

Given the perception in the small-business community that DHS caters to large-business solutions, I wonder how much is steered to large businesses or partners by the influence of the "blended" workforce supporting the Department's acquisition process?
Anonymous


Regarding "OMB asks agencies for A-76 costs and savings": Competitive sourcing opens the door to more scams and scandals than old fashioned pork barrel schemes.

I am an auditor and I have seen how it works many times. They can say that adequate oversight and performance benchmarks will close the loopholes and prevent the scams, but that costs money too...money that should be deducted from the so-called cost savings of contracting to outside service providers. It is just a shell game...a slight of hand...under which shell is the money hidden? The marks (taxpayers) always lose.
Anonymous


Regarding "Editorial: Right man, bad timing?" Williams will certainly face some tough questions on his role in US-VISIT. But even tougher questions about all of his conflicts of interest are likely. He has several close family members that work for large government contractors that all do lots of business with GSA.

The good news is that GSA has a very professional, fair and competent IG that will scrutinize everything that Williams does, if he does get confirmed.
Anonymous


Regarding "Editorial: Right man, bad timing?" Williams gets lots of praise for his experience in government but he could face some scrutiny for his leadership of US-VISIT. That program is and has always been a disaster that has never met a deadline and is now 10 [times] over budget.

He has to take some responsibility for that. Perhaps even more troubling is that Williams led the IRS Modernization effort before moving to DHS and that program, too, was a disaster that lost well over $1 billion (that was back when a $1 billion was a lot of money). Why the White House wants to push this guy in at the last minute is strange.
Anonymous


What do you think? Paste a comment in the box below (registration required), or send your comment to letters@fcw.com (subject line: Blog comment) and we'll post it.