Plenty of laws govern contracting

Jerry Grossman's Market Watch column in the July 9 Washington Technology was right on the mark.

We have enough laws on the books to control contracting. What the government needs to do is increase the skill level of its contracting workforce. When investors ask me about the difference between government contracting and commercial work, I simply tell them, "You know you have a contract in the commercial world if you get paid; in government contracting, you get paid when you complete the obligations of the contract."

In government contracting, if you don't have competent acquisition and procurement professionals on both sides, your program runs the risk of being a huge failure simply because of an inability to deal with complexities and control change.

I also believe that there are more competent acquisition and procurement professionals working today than 10 years ago.

But in a period of growth such as we have had since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, it is harder for the government to muster the resources to expand than it is for us contractors.

I have always told my team that the worst situation we could be in as a government contractor is to not have a competent team sitting across the table from us.

Ray Oleson

Chairman

SI International Inc.

Reston, Va.