‘Bill would bar contractors from running Defense programs’: Congress is moving to bulk up the Pentagon’s in-house acquisition staff and cut back on contractors providing procurement guidance on how to spend taxpayer money.
How about a bill that would bar Defense contractors from running the Pentagon? (Is Darleen Druyun out of jail yet?)
Megan Scully, a refugee from Gannett’s Military Times group and now with GovExec, reports on the legislation.
…..Oh yeah, and the Military Times publishing group, including Army Times, markets itself as being independent from the Pentagon…. But not the defense contractor advertising that provides 20 percent net profits. (Do the editors get bonus money based on gross revenues or just readership? …. We all do what we can within our limitations, but keen minds are a terrible thing to waste…..The publishing group once was family owned. How about cutting back to 14 percent net for six percent more independence? That story on bad body armor may have been published a lot sooner that the six months editors took to sit on it.)
‘State, Pentagon split on Iraq aid’: The Pentagon and State Department have locked horns over methods to administer U.S. aid in Iraq, a military expert tells UPI.
It’s an update on the ongoing feud for the past six years ever since former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld “effectively froze State out of the interagency consultative process on Iraq issues.”
Anthony H. Cordesman with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, observes:
“Getting effective aid programs generally requires 18-24 month deployments — not short-term presence — and career civilians are grossly underpaid relative to contractors, many of which ruthlessly game their government supervisors to maximize profits at the expense of effectiveness,” he said.
How about just leaving the reconstruction to the Iraqis? Better yet, send a reliable contractor by to help paint my house. FIXED PRICE.
Speaking of which: Reuters reports that U.S. lawmakers have introduced new legislation to protect fund managers and state pension programs from shareholder lawsuits if they divest holdings in energy companies doing business with Iran. HUH? SAY WHAT? Hasn’t the US been on the brink of war with Iraq since 1979?
