When Rep Henry Waxman (CA) took over the chairmanship of the
House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform this year he did so with
what he saw as a backlog of issues dating to 2000. Dozens of hearings have exposed numerous problems in contracts with Halliburton
and others including the Coast Guard’s Deepwater fiasco. The problems are enormous and need fixing.
By the time it is all reported, the federal government will likely
have awarded more than $400 billion to outside contractors last year. The contracts cover a wide array of services
most notably disaster relief and services in Iraq. The combination of corruption and
incompetence is alarming.
Last year, Congress passed the Federal Accountability and
Transparency Act which directed OMB to create an online searchable database for
all contracts awarded by the federal government. While that is an important step, numerous
problems continue. Among the top
concerns in this area in Congress this year are:
Contractor responsibility:
The government’s current system for awarding contracts allows so-called ‘bad
actors’ to continue to compete for contracts without any consideration given to
past performance. New rules should at
the very least include a system that accounts for companies’ health and
safety violations, environmental record, whether they were able to complete
previous projects, and whether they have defrauded the federal or state
governments in the past.
Competitive bidding: Contracts are supposed to be awarded on
a merit-based system that includes a competitive bidding. However, in recent years the number of
categories for exceptions to competition has grown considerably. As a result, the amount of money awarded in uncompetitive contracts
is now around 40%. Rules should be
changed to narrow the exceptions to a few reasonable categories (i.e. when legitimate
efforts to solicit bids yield only one).
Crack done on fraud: The number of investigators and contract
managers has been cut at the same time the money and contracts awarded has
grown significantly. One example of increasing
fraud involves big businesses setting up pass through companies to attract
contracts reserved for small businesses. There are simply not enough people to
oversee what is being done with public’s money.
Additional disclosure:
As we know from other issue areas, FOIA requests are being routinely
slowed or blocked. There are efforts to
open that up as it relates to contractors.
There are also efforts to change what is considered classified/sensitive
but unclassified/unclassified. Since President Bush took office there have been 100 new categories (without clear standards)
created to keep contractor information from the public. In the last Congress,
the Executive Branch Reform Act of 2006 was co-sponsored by Chairman Waxman to address some of these issues.
Restore scientific integrity: There are science panels that
award contracts and grants for research and development. Those panels should be free of partisan or
political interference.
These are some of the issues that Congress needs to address
if we are to be able to see any meaningful accountability in the use of our tax
dollars.