Federal Government Voluntary

In this paper I will discuss the various aspects of a Federal Contract Specialist position and what makes it different from many other government jobs. Some people think contracting is just shopping for a living, however, it requires great skill and attention to detail. Contract Specialists must be able to communicate effectively with their customers, vendors and other contracting personnel and they must be able to accurately interpret regulations and apply them appropriately. This position is a little bit customer service representative, a little bit personal shopper and a whole lot of legal assistant.

Since the attacks a number of civil defense programs have been initiated, which leads to more departments asking for an allowance within the national budget. This ultimately is leading to a larger and larger deficit that is quickly encompassing full percentage points of our GDP. There is a debate on how much defense

Zakheim and Kadish explain two decades ago, there were more than twenty prime contractors competing for defense contracts while today the government relies on just six contractors to build its defense systems. Zakheim and Kadish state, “The system largely forgoes competition on price, delivery and performance and replaces it with a kind of “design bureau” competition”. The report explains that firms such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin have operated in collaboration on several projects such as the Air Force’s next generation bomber (Zakheim & Kadish, 2008). Collaboration of this nature suggests cooperative equilibrium between the firms to enhance their mutual payoff of outbidding competitors. With the defense market on the downturn pending major budget cuts over the next several years, more collaboration strategies are possible for firms to remain competitive. The existing procurement system encourages bargaining among the government and bidding firms. When budgets are allocated generously, demand is high and firms can set their prices higher. Budget cuts decrease demand and increase bargaining between buyer and seller. Security Industry reports budget deficits subject contracts to greater

Although reducing costs and improving services have been cited as the most important reasons services are privatized by agencies, contracting out offers the attractiveness of hiring a contract employee over a public employee. This occurs because of the apparent advantages offered by such options (Dilger et al. 23). Some advantages of hiring a contract employee over a civil servant are as follows:

In response to a rapidly increasing national debt, President Barack Obama signed into law in August of 2011 the Budget Control Act (BCA) which mandated $1.2 trillion in across-the-board spending cuts, known as sequestration, over a 10-year period (Matthews, 2013). The BCA of 2011 was intended to serve as motivation for the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to come up with a deal for achieving equivalent spending cuts and avoid a mandatory sequestration (Matthews, 2013). The committee

The United States government is the largest single purchaser of goods and services in the world. Even during times of economic hardship, the US continues to dump billions into the private sector. The federal procurement spending rate of growth has surpassed the rate of U.S. inflation every year, since 2000. With annual federal procurement budgets of more than $400 billion, it is no surprise that the competition for government contracts has increased tremendously. Consequently, more and more companies are trying to get a piece of the action. When these companies adhere to all of the required regulations and statutes, they expect their proposals to be evaluated and the contract awarded in

Contract monitoring is the systematic review of a contractor’s records, activities, etc. to ensure compliance with the terms and conditions of the contract (Texas HHSC 2015). Because privatization aims to provide the government with the best value in terms of quality, service, and conditions, contracting does not end after the procurement process (Schooner 2011, 3). The administration of the contract, including monitoring, is just as important to ensuring that the state gets the best value. Despite the fact that there is a clear contract monitoring process within HHS, time is not always invested into developing a comprehensive monitoring approach and funds are not always allocated towards that process, preventing agencies

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are winding down and that will help lower the defense spending by almost $1 trillion over the next decade. The congress is realizing that they need to do some restructuring and have already begun rearranging the military budget in response to austerity. Congress conjured up a $630 billion defense appropriations bill that made plans to reduce civilian and contractor personnel by 5 percent over the next five years and in return ramp up advanced weapons programs, including drones, bombers and missiles says The Washington Post. The American Conservative

While this appears to be a good datapoint in that it is a direct correlation to “butter” related activities. Training is relative to education and compensation is relative to pay and benefits. A number of questions which arise: If 80% of the military budget is relative to “butter” related activities, and 20% is being spent for direct defense related efforts, then why are these costs included in the defense budget? Would shifting the costs for military training be better suited at the Department of Labor (current budget of $11.8 billion)? Would shifting the costs for compensation related healthcare be better situated at the Department of Health and Human Services (current budget s $77.1 billion) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (current budget s $65.3 billion)?

With the growing regional population, Federal, State and Local governments will be hard pressed to expand infrastructure and services. For our operations in Georgia and South Carolina, this expansion presents an amazing opportunity in the government contracting arena as well. Federal, State and Local governments are scrambling to develop roads, schools and utility infrastructure. These efforts will require monumental support and services from the private sector. This is where OFS

The financial cost of everything is so massive, every agency. This is thousands of times bigger, the United States, than the biggest company in the world. The second-largest company in the world is the Defense Department. The third-largest company in the world is Social Security. The fourth-largest — you know, you go down the

I think a budget does not have to choose between programs or federal workers or choose from federal, contract, or private industry implementation and management of federal programs. The budget needs to assess which option or combination of options give the most cost effective and efficient delivery of public service through government programs. When I see my agency carefully manage our allocations from Congress, I absolutely think that there are other ways to reduce the proverbial waste, fraud, and abuse of program monies. This is not by paying the educated and skilled federal worker less than industry standards for comparable work. It is not by dissolving all social programs so people in need are even needier. I think the solution is somewhere in between and where appropriately paid and benefited federal personnel manage government programs to the best interest of the people served by the

Americans depend on government bureaucracies to accomplish most of what we expect from government, and we are oftentimes critical of a bureaucracy’s handling of its responsibilities. Bureaucracy is essential for carrying out the tasks of government. As government bureaucracies grew in the twentieth century, new management techniques sought to promote greater efficiency. The reorganization of the government to create the Department of Homeland Security and the Bush administration’s simultaneous push to contract out jobs to private employers raises the question as to whether the government or the private sector can best manage our national security. Ironically, the criticism of the bureaucracy may be a product

In this research paper I will discuss the process of contracting out, issues of cost, credibility, accountability, and quality and quantity of services. My discussion will also include reasons for contracting out, opposition, and advantages and problems of contracting out.

The need for financial stringency in public organizations due to budgetary pressures and tax resistance coupled with the need to Managing /balancing budget deficits and provide quality services with a reduction in revenue has always been a major challenge for public organizations. The need to save money and at the same time provide quality services, had forced government agencies to privatize and contract out. Recently, there is greater involvement of the private and nonprofit sector in public service delivery. More and more government functions in service delivery are now carried out by private and nonprofit organization. This is one part attributed to the belief that private organizations can provide services more efficiently and effectively than government operated services. And the other is the fact that it is cost effective and takes a lesser time frame. These two process are indeed unarguably beneficial to the government and private sector as well as the beneficiaries, but they can be also very daunting accompanied with huge challenges especially when not executed in the rightful manner. The case of the crummy contractor by Rainey depicts such a complex situation , where the process of contracting out was poorly conducted. The case highlights the demand for privatization and contracting-out and most importantly some of the challenges of privatization and contracting in government organization. it goes on further to identify some crucial pointed to be