OMB contracting cuts: Answer to government waste?
December 21st, 2009 by JD KathuriaNorm Augustine once said that a bureaucracy’s idea of moving out is to hit the ground sitting.
Not this time.
In what OMB Deputy Director of Management Jeff Zients is calling a “very fast start,” federal agencies are nearly halfway through reaching a two-year goal set by President Obama back in March: They’ve already cut $19 billion from contracting budgets, according to a new report released Monday, Dec. 21 by the Office of Management and Budget.
Since 2002, government spending on contracts has more than doubled, totaling roughly $540 billion in 2008. Over the same period, the use of noncompetitive, “high risk” contracts jumped by $106 billion.
Unacceptable, says Zients, whom we named one of the Top 20 People to Watch in 2010. “I used to work with large, established Fortune 50 companies and small start-up companies,” said Zients, in remarks to reporters on the heels of the report’s release. “These types of practices or abuses would not be tolerated in the private sector. They’re unacceptable. We will fix them.”
Today’s OMB report also applauded several agencies for already identifying ways to cut contracting costs. Among them is the National Nuclear Security Administration; it’s launched a “reverse eBay” Web site that allows contracting companies to revise their bids if another firm offers a lower price. So far, NNSA has saved roughly 18 percent on each contract as a result of the auction site.
Do OMB’s contracting cuts signal a positive shift? Share your comments here.
