Few countries have moved as aggressively ? and as successfully ? as the United Kingdom in transforming the provision of public services. The private delivery of federaland local public services in the United Kingdom exceeds $150 billion, up from $60 billion in 1995.
Transparency is essential to building credibility when dealing with public funds and the public trust, and numerous proposals now before Congress seek to enhance transparency in government contracting. Their essentialgoal is laudable even though some of these proposals are driven bya misperception that fraud is rampant in federal contracting ? aperception even the special inspector general for Iraq reconstructionhas repeatedly challenged.
I went ahead and did it. Everyone has been talking about Web 2.0, and I finally figured I'd better get on board before the Generation Y crowd eats my lunch and leaves me in the dust with the rest of the baby boomers.
Mention of Web 2.0 often elicits bewilderment, mild aversion or downright confusion. Social-networking tools and technologies have become widespread, but not yet in government or the federal contracting industry, where they prompt adoption anxiety.
Some in Congress believe the proportion of federal contracts that are competitivelyawarded has dropped precipitously even though competition levels are at about the same proportion today as they were 10 years ago.
With Memorial Day on our minds, it is fitting to look at how technology is benefiting our warfighters returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. All veterans - but wounded troops in particular - face a multitude of physical, emotional and professional challenges when returning to civilian life, not the least of which could be unemployment.
To the credit of former GSAAdministrator Lurita Doan and Acting AdministratorDavid Bibb, GSA's Multiple Award Schedule AdvisoryPanel is moving forward. The next meeting of the 15-memberpanel was scheduled to be held May 22 at the GSA auditorium.Such meetings are open to industry.
Just as in every campaign that has preceded it, the issue ofjobs has been at center stage throughout the 2008 presidentialcampaign. Candidates talk about creating jobs, buildingsustainable domestic industries and so forth. Ironically, onetopic that never comes up in those discussions is one of thenation's most significant sources of high-quality, well-compensatedemployment: government contracting.
Every spring, Washington Technology puts out the annual Top 100 contractor list. And each year, starting about three days after that issue is delivered, I start getting calls with questions that go something like this: " ... How can I move my company up into that top bracket?" There are a few simple concepts you have to understand to succeed in this market.
The federal procurement system is the largest and amongthe cleanest public-sector procurement systems in theworld. It counts transparency and competition as its highestvalues.