Challenges in Cutting Contracting

I'm blogging from home today with a cold (telework really does make folks more productive!), which gave me a chance to read colleague and frequent contributor to this blog Robert Brodsky's fantastic feature in our November issue about how the Obama administration's desire to cut contracting is colliding with its expansion of government activities. And Rob makes the point that the administration's goals may never have been realistic even absent the Recovery Act's need to spend money very quickly (which basically mandates contractors):

As it has in the health care debate, the administration is betting that widespread inefficiencies permeate the procurement system and streamlined and reengineered business practices can save taxpayers billions. But some fear the lack of concrete implementation guidance and accountability measures in the Orszag memo could lead agency officials to treat it as little more than a theoretical exercise.

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Rooting out 7 percent in inefficiencies could be easier said than done. For more than half a decade, agencies have employed chief acquisition officers whose primary goal has been to monitor the performance of contracts, to increase full-and-open competition and to manage procurement policy strategically. Some suggest the lowest-hanging fruit in terms of contract savings might have been plucked long ago.

Anyway, read it all. It's very, very good.