PSC seeks balance, thoughtful contracting in 2012

The Professional Services Council released its top five policy priorities for the year, emphasizing efficiencies and balancing the private and public sectors.

PSC said April 16 that it intends to focus on:

• Balanced competition among industry and among the public and private sectors. It wants to reform how the government compares costs between the two sectors to reflect the total cost to perform a contract. It also wants to limit inappropriate insourcing and allow for competitive sourcing, or Office of Management and Budget Circular A-76. The circular describes how to conduct a competition between a contractor and federal employees. However, Congress has banned the competitions for several years.

• Effective regulatory reform. PSC wants the government to analyze the impact and lasting effects of proposed regulations, which, it says, have continued to grow.

• Strategic rather than process-oriented approaches to federal contracting. The process-oriented procurement limits how innovative government officials can be when buying good and services, according to PSC.

• Broadening the industrial base. The government needs policies to encourage small business to thrive in the federal marketplace.

• Liability issues. Trends in contracting have placed more risk on companies, which the government should reconsider. Officials should opt to balance the risk, according to PSC. It also wants the government to keep away from companies' hiring decisions and avoid inappropriate use of suspensions and debarments of companies.

“This is a challenging time for government and for the industry that provides such vital support to it,” said Stan Soloway, PSC president and CEO.