William Sims Curry - Government Abuse: Fraud, Waste, and Incompetence in Awarding Contracts in the United States

Fraud, Waste, and Incompetence in Awarding Contracts in the United States

William Sims Curry

First published 2014 by Transaction Publishers

Published 2017 by Routledge
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Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2013038874

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Curry, William Sims, author.
Government abuse : fraud, waste, and incompetence in awarding contracts in the United States / William Sims Curry.
pages cm
1. Public contracts--United States. 2. Contracting out--United States. 3. Government purchasing--Law and legislation--United States. 4. Fraud--United States. I. Title.
KF849.C875 2014
364.16'30973--dc23

2013038874

ISBN 13: 978-1-4128-5371-2 (hbk)

Thanks, forever, to my wife, Kirsten, for her encouragement and
support during my involvement in this project. This book is also
dedicated to my children William II, Randall, Kim Cannova, Derek, and
my grandchildren Adele and Graham Peck.

[I]f the citizens neglect their Duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made, not for the public good so much as for selfish or local purposes; corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the Laws; the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizen will be violated or disregarded.

Noah Webster

Most Americans interested in government affairs are likely aware of President Dwight D. Eisenhowers warning regarding the threat to Americas liberties or democratic processes from the potentially misplaced influence and power made possible by the military-industrial complex. The evolution of weapons systems and the Cold War rendered it impossible to maintain national security by merely converting peacetime industries to a war footing once hostilities were threatened or initiated. The geopolitical environment following World War II and the Korean War necessitated the capability to respond immediately to national security threats. This immediate response capability could not be achieved without maintaining a permanent armament industry and its corollary military-industrial complex. Defense contractors learned to exercise their influence on the US Congress by distributing defense plants for coveted programs throughout the nation. The national apportionment of design centers and manufacturing operations created employment opportunities and facilitated campaign contributions from multiple states and congressional districts. The success of this approach resulted in frustrating the military establishment that was forced by congressional appropriations to acquire unwanted weapons systems while being denied high priority armaments needed to address immediate objectives.

The influence of defense contractors over Congress to authorize the acquisition of certain weapons systems in deference to other programs cannot be abated if constituents continue reelecting incumbent representatives. Acquisition system process improvements for products and services can, however, alleviate the incidence of fraud, incompetence, waste, and abuse (FIWA) in federal government contracting. While military contracting has been the focus thus far in this discussion, FIWA is rampant throughout federal government contracting. The incidence of FIWA discovered during research conducted in preparation for writing this book revealed a pattern of miscreant and incompetent actions throughout numerous federal agencies.

Two contractor selection practices mandated by DOD policy, and often emulated by other federal agencies, are especially egregious. The first of these practices, mandated by the DOD supplement to the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR), is the prohibition against using numerical scoring to rate contractor proposals. When scoring is limited to adjectival or color scoring, proposal evaluation teams frequently report tied, or virtually tied, ratings for competing contractors. When presented with such cryptic proposal evaluation team results, the government source selection authority has considerable maneuvering room in selecting the contractor to be awarded the contract. Flexibility in selecting the contractor provides malevolent government officials the opportunity to award contracts to the favored contractor, possibly in return for illicit personal gains. The second practice, specified in the FAR, requires government agencies to assign the relative importance of factors and subfactors used in the evaluation of contractor proposals in solicitations. The relative importance is described in government solicitations and applied when evaluating contractor proposals. Relative importance, for example, might be described as, Mission capability is assigned greatest importance, proposal risk and past performance factors are of equal importance, and all three factors are individually more important than price. The problem with using relative importance is that the proposal evaluation team enjoys the latitude to adjust factor and subfactor weights during the proposal evaluation process. Such leeway to adjust the importance of evaluation factors permits the evaluation team members to reward their favored contractor by assigning higher importance to factors where the favored contractor is strong and lower importance to factors where the favored contractor is weak.

This book defines and narrows the impact from FIWA; describes numerous cases illustrating acquisition process deficiencies; and, most importantly, offers detailed recommendations for correcting the deficiencies in mandated proposal evaluation processes as well as other tools and process changes to ensure the selection of contractors offering the best value to the government and curtailing fraudulent activities.

Numerous federal government entities analyze questionable federal procurement activities and recommend or direct corrective action when warranted. The results of their findings and determinations are published or posted on the Internet for all to see. Select nonprofits, individuals, and the media monitor government procurement actions and unveil egregious cases. Unfettered access to the results of their analyses and investigations inform the citizenry about the public contracting travesties they discover. Ready availability of information developed by government entities, nongovernment organizations, and individuals greatly simplified the research efforts performed in preparation for this writing. , Exemplary Actions by Government and Nongovernment Entities for Combating Fraud, Incompetence, Waste, and Abuse, is dedicated to the following government and nongovernment entities and individuals: