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Check-out the Most Recent
President's Corner Updated on August 30th!
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The West Sound NCMA President's Corner
August 30, 2011
Welcome back. I hope all of you had a summer that was personally relaxing and professionally rewarding. We all have to agree that summers here in Seattle area, whenever they come and however short they might be, are spectacular. To look at it another way, at least we didn’t have to deal with the earthquakes, killer tornadoes, the incredible heat waves, and Hurricane Irene as the rest of the nation seems to be facing.
Unfortunately, while many of us might have been able to take the summer off as did the Chapter, the procurement process kept grinding along. As always, a number of new statutes, regulations, case decisions, and manuals kept coming out, but most importantly and disturbingly, there is a rise of indictments, convictions and guilty pleas, not only among contractors but among government personnel, including a large number of contracting officers. Because of the lax oversight and incredible confusion that is endemic to a war zone, it seems that every week brings news of another scandal arising out of a Iraq or Afghanistan. That is especially problematic not only for the individuals involved but for the procurement system in general and all of us involved in it. Such scandals cement in the minds of the public the idea that the procurement system is riddled with fraud and that many of those involved in it, on either side of the table, are either crooked or incompetent. Acting on such views Congress then beats out a steady stream of new statutes that make the system so difficult to deal with.
As always we will try to make this year one of enjoyment and education. If you are aware of any topics, speakers or anything else of interest, for instance, new classes, manuals, etc. please do not hesitate to notify us either by giving us a call, sending us an email, or exerting something on the website. I urge all of you to do one thing a month that would benefit the Chapter. The can be as easy as putting on the website a notice of a new manual you received that was especially helpful or a course that you took that you think would be worthwhile for others to be aware of. As always, I look forward to seeing you at our monthly meetings.
[Expand to include older posts]
Sincerely, Jim Nagle
701 Pike Street, Suite 1700 Seattle, Washington 98101-3930 Phone: (206) 623-3427 Fax: (206) 682-6234
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