Every so often someone says things that need to be said. Not that it will change anything, but just to reassure others who share their sentiments that they aren’t alone.
Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry published some sure fire ways to radically change how government contracting gets done in a recent Forbes article: How To Fix Government Contracting For Good
In the spirit of Twitter mavenMorgan Warstler‘s so-crazy-they’re-great pie-in-the-sky plans, here’s my suggestion for fixing government contracting.
Here’s his plan to fix government contracting:
Abolish all rules on government contracting. Every single one of them. The thousands of rules that anyone who makes purchasing decisions for the government has to abide by, rules that are not meant to increase ROI to the government but (in a ham-fisted, useless way) “prevent” fraud and abuse–they’re gone. Instead, they’re replaced by two rules: “Act in the best interests of the American taxpayer”; and “Every purchasing and purchasing-related action made on behalf of the government must be made public and easily accessible on the internet using open, human and machine-readable formats.” Suddenly you don’t have to work within the insane framework of “cost-plus.” Act in the best interests of the American taxpayer and know you’re being watched.
Establish high bounties for uncovering any fraud and terrible penalties. Unleash the innovative spirit of the American people on fixing the problem. Accounting experts will quit their jobs at PwC and become government waste bounty hunters, making much better money and working for themselves. Meanwhile, the penalties for those caught doing fraud–or not acting in the best interests of the American people–will be severe. Fraudsters will not just be punished, they will be shamed. Wasting taxpayer money is attacking the very fabric of the social contract and stealing people’s blood, sweat and tears. It is a crime against the body politic akin to treason. People who waste taxpayer money don’t just go to prison. They get tarred, like sex offenders: they can’t work certain kinds of jobs; they can’t live in certain places; they certainly can’t vote. They are in a public database, and when people look at them, they think “You stole from my family for your greedy personal benefit.” Their wages are garnished so they can pay back the money they’ve wasted. There is one way out, however: they can become fraud bounty hunters and earn back the public’s money and trust.
Set up oversight ninjas to make the system work. Not all cases of fraud are clear-cut, and even government fraudsters deserve due process. So we set up an oversight authority to manage the government purchasing managers. The types of members we want: federal judges and prosecutors; business professors; purchasing managers at Wal-Mart; senior accountants; senior management consultants who don’t work for the government but do work in industries like retail and logistics; et al.
Fire the bottom 20% every year. This policy is famous because Jack Welch implemented it at GE. For our purposes, it achieves two things. First, obviously, it puts the average quality of government purchasing managers on an upward path. Secondly, it proves to the society that Government Purchasing Manager is a selective, prestigious job. This is not a bureaucrat paper-pushing job–if you don’t cut it, you will be culled. And remember, there are only the Two Rules: Act in the best interests of the American taxpayer, and Know you’re being watched. The worst enemy of purchasing is box-ticking and we’re doing everything to kill it. This authority does not spell out rules. Act in the best interests of the American taxpayer; we’re watching you. If you commit fraud or abuse, we’ll make your life hell.
Make the top 1% multimillionaires. The GE policy is “20-70-10″: fire the bottom 20%, give a bonus to the top 10%. But this is not how government purchasing should work. Walmart didn’t become Walmart just by “driving a hard bargain on prices”; they became Walmart by reinventing supply chain management, logistics, information technology, etc.–and then reinventing them again. It’s highly creative work. In creative work, the people who matter are not the top 10%, they’re the top 1%, who are 10 times better than the 98th percentile. Those are the ones who we need to identify and reward. And remember: government waste is so huge that we can spend tons of money and still save a lot more.
Put it all together and what it accomplishes is tremendous.
The bureaucracy is fatally wounded. There are only the Two Rules. Are you awarding this contract to your good friend because you’re doing him a favor, or because knowing him well you know he’ll do an outstanding job? Act in the best interests of the American taxpayer. Know you’re being watched. No-bid contracts to your wife are totally fine–as long as it’s in the interests of the American taxpayer.
The government becomes Walmart. After a while, government buying isn’t just “less wasteful”–it becomes qualitatively different. Government purchasing becomes ruthlessly efficient, which drives efficiency both ways: inside government, and throughout the sectors of the economy that depend on government. It’s not just that fighter jets become cheaper, it’s that fighter jets become better and cheaper all the time, like iPads. Instead of “ending Medicare waste” we’re ending Medicare waste.
Corruption goes away. Corruption doesn’t go away because it’s “banned”. Corruption goes away because it’s irrelevant.
We get great public servants. If you’re a whip-smart 22 year old graduating Harvard, you know that if you become a government purchasing manager, it’s a worthy job and you’ve got a good shot at making tons of money. If the top 1% gets zillions every year, after 10 years that’s a 10% shot–as good or better as making partner at a bank or consulting firm or law firm, and the work’s better to boot. It’s a real meritocracy, because you can make the 1% at 26 or 62.
Over time, faith in the government and public institutions rises as money is better spent. Questions about programs stop being about doing less-with-less versus more-with-more, but about doing more-with-less.
This is a plan conservatives should embrace because it makes government leaner and (much) smaller. This is a plan progressives should embrace because it increases public trust in government and the Commonwealth, and frees money for government to do more things. It’s good government, it’s good economics and it’s good politics.
Full article: How To Fix Government Contracting For Good
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Pascal for President 2016 campaign starts now.
Seriously… I agree with taking a very tough stance against those who steal from us. The amount of resources being lost to fraud and corruption is enormous. That money and time going down that chute could go a long towards doing some good where good is needed. Maybe invest it in some new charter schools for the most desperate city school systems we have. Then when someone is caught stealing they’re not taking from taxpayers (which is bad, but Zzzz…), they’re stealing from inner city kids trying to eek out a respectable existence in our society.
I also agree with weeding out the under-productive and handsomely rewarding the achievers. One-pay-fits-all that can’t be lost no matter what the work ethic does not work. It didn’t work in the Soviet Union and it isn’t working in government.
What are your thoughts on his plan? Is there a problem needing some fixin’? I think you know where I stand.