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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.
[Contract to only most recent post]
January 10, 2011
Happy New Year—calendar not fiscal!
It seems like every time I do one of these I talk about things will be changing a lot in the next twelve months and we’ll face a lot of challenges. I guess that just goes with the territory and being involved in contracting. That’s a good thing I am sure because otherwise it would get so monotonous and boring that we could not retain the high quality people we have if the work they did was mind-numbingly similar from day-to-day. In the last two years, unfortunately, the changes have been coming so fast and furiously that the system probably does need to slow down for awhile so the personnel can adjust to all these changes.
Typically our chapter and NCMA as a whole focuses on federal contracting. This is understandable since that is the one system that is uniform from Alaska to Florida and overseas. But we should not forget private contracting and state and local public contracting. It is state and local public contracting that is in for probably the roughest road over the foreseeable future. Many states, and Washington state is foremost among them, are going to be undergoing SEVERE financial crises. Budgets will be pared to the bare minimum. The impact on contracting is less clear. Will that mean that there will be fewer contracts or will various cities or counties decide that contracting out work is actually cheaper than having public employees do it. Many local governments may well find that it is cheaper to contract matters out because many companies are so desperate for work that they will submit bids stripped to the bare minimum and maybe even below cost just to get some revenue in house.
How all this will shake out is anyone’s guess. But in this year, please keep state and local and private contracting in mind as you suggest topics and speakers for upcoming meetings.
As always, I look forward to seeing you at our meetings. I recognize that not all of us can make every meeting. I particularly am on the road quite a lot so I miss an embarrassingly large number of meetings, but I can assure you that if I am in town, I make every effort to attend. I do so not only because of the topic and speaker, but I sincerely enjoy seeing all of you and trading insights as to what is going on in contracting. Besides, the food at Ambrosia Catering has been uniformly outstanding and plentiful. So there are far worse ways to spend an evening once a month!
I wish all of you the best of 2011, both professionally and personally.
October 5, 2010
Welcome to the 2010-2011 NCMA year. As always, we look forward to seeing you for networking, educational, and social activities at our monthly meetings.
Contract management seems to more important and more difficult than ever; more important because the size, length, and complexity of our contracts keep growing exponentially; and not just in federal contracts. Many state and local governments and private companies are downsizing by contracting out activities and laying people off, very often to have the same people do the same work, but as contractors. Therefore, the employers can avoid the extra expenses of benefits.
Contract management has been getting more difficult, not only because the contracts themselves were becoming more complex, but because the rules keep changing. It takes an enormous amount of time just to review all the new statutes, regulations, manuals, and cases that one must to insure that either side, buyer or seller, is not making an error that can result in a multimillion dollar mistake, fraud charges, or a public relations nightmare.
While federal contracting always seems to dominate NCMA activities, especially in our chapter with its important nucleus of Navy contracting, but that is especially important now. Considering the economy, many private contracting dollars have dried up. So people are looking to the federal government who have never done so before. NCMA in its educational aspect is more important than ever. A couple of months ago, I was called by the head of a very large long-established, well-respected Seattle construction company that had always avoided federal contracts. He called me on a Thursday and asked me to come over on a Friday for a couple of hours “to tell us all we need to know about federal contracting.” That would be like giving someone a pail and telling them to empty Puget Sound. The analogy is apt for two reasons. Not only is Puget Sound vast, but it is constantly being replenished. This year we shall try to broaden our horizons to include not only federal, but state, local and private contract management issues.
As always, if you have any thoughts for a topic or a speaker, or want to give a presentation yourself, please let us know. Also, please don’t forget our newsletter and website. If you come across an important article, policy or any item of interest, please send it to us so that we can put it in the newsletter and post it on our website.
See you at the meetings!!!!
March 18, 2010
As I dictate this, the new health care bill is supposedly to be voted on this week and talk still swirls around Washington DC of a new stimulus package. New procurement statutes seem to come out every other week along with new pronouncements from the agencies and new newspaper reports of another scandal, most of which are coming from Iraq or Afghanistan. Newspaper columns seem filled with articles about how the procurement system has been botched so terribly on the Air Force tanker contract, that after all these years and all this money, the government still wound up in a sole source situation with Boeing which is pretty much the same situation they were in ten years ago before they made the effort to make it a competitive buy. I hate to say it but I think the situation will get worse. With the construction industry in the doldrums, many companies that have never dealt with federal contracts before are bidding jobs because they are the only game in town. These people will undoubtedly make mistakes and more problems will result.
NCMA is more important than ever. Even if you are one of the “mailbox members” who never does anything more than grab your issue of Contract Management out of your mailbox, I have been very impressed by the articles they have had in the magazine recently. They have taken some incredibly complex issues such as the new Buy American Act rules under the stimulus package and some of the rules on joint venturing with a small business, and broken them down into easily digestible and understandable articles. The update portion in the back about new statutes and new regulations, both proposed and implemented, is extremely valuable.
If you go one step beyond being a mailbox member and actually attend our monthly meetings, aside from the camaraderie and uniformly good food (and plenty of it) at Ambrosia’s Catering, it is an amazing networking opportunity as most of the attendees seem to know many of the others and have worked on the same projects. We really do make an effort to have speakers who have knowledge and insights to a topic of tremendous interest to our membership.
As always, please keep your thoughts coming for speakers and articles. Also, if you come across a neat website that would be of interest, please let us know about so we can share it on our website and in our newsletter.
September 22, 2009
Where did the summer go? The glorious weather came upon us and hopefully will be with us for a little bit longer (I’m still hoping for what we used to call Indian summer well into October).
While we were off doing other things, the world of contracting did not slow down one bit. The FAR has numerous new subparts and clauses. Numerous regulations have been issued implementing the new statues such as the Recovery Act, changes to the Fraud statutes. The government’s e-verify system finally went into effect on September 8, 2009. The drumbeats continue to roll for more fixed price contracts awarded competitively and for more stringent justifications for any deviations from those requirements.
Numerous contractors, especially hunting for work in this economy, are looking to team with small businesses. Government people are still overworked. Fortunately (???), many of our older hands, the baby boomers who had planned to retire by now, are now looking at a few more years of work as we saw our 401Ks and other savings dwindle.
If a health care reform package passes, in whatever form, that will have drastic impacts on the government’s contracting apparatus. New agencies will be formed or old ones greatly expanded, which will be another avenue for upward mobility for contracting professionals.
More contracting positions keep opening but the number of qualified applicants is limited. So please bring your “newbies” to our meetings to help in their education process.
June 3, 2009
As I woke up this morning, I realized I had achieved a life-long goal. My net worth was greater than General Motors! Somehow that doesn’t seem to be as big a deal as it was when I was teenager. The fact that GM and Chrysler are now in bankruptcy shows how the world is shifting. I point that out to you because as the West Sound Chapter takes its summer break, we have no idea what tremendous developments will occur before we convene again in September. The economy is in shambles. We’re fighting two wars. The Korean Peninsula is in turmoil. Our largest state, California, is technically bankrupt. Congress seems to be passing new procurement statutes with virtually no examination. Items that are in the Recovery Act may well become permanent by September. There may be new restrictions on cost type contracts and greater requirements for competition.
Contractors who have never dealt with government contracts at all or to a very minor degree are flocking into federal procurement to take advantage of the sources of funds. Contracting managers are being flooded with dollars and timetables to award contracts with those dollars that are unrealistic in terms of the speed and complexity. Oddly enough the recession has had one blessing for contract management. Many of the most experienced contract managers probably would have retired by now, but as they saw their 401K’s and investments dwindle, they decided to stick around for a few more years.
Our profession has always been dedicated and competent, but in the most hectic times they have been nimble. They have been able to roll with the punches, adapt, and in the most trying circumstances adapt to new statutes, regulations and circumstances. Whatever we confront when we assemble again in September, we’ll be able to deal with it. In the meantime have a wonderful summer.
January 9, 2009
As I write this, the inauguration is less than two weeks away and the economy is tanking.
Obviously, the government will use government spending to jump start the economy. One way to circumvent the credit crisis is to give people government contracts. Then, through such time-honored vehicles as the Assignment of Claims Act or progress payments, contractors will be able to get the necessary funding to perform contracts, hire workers, and buy the necessary supplies and services.
So, while there is great debate in the Nation’s capitol and throughout the country as to the particulars of the stimulus program, no one really doubts that a stimulus program is coming and that it will be many hundreds of billions of dollars. While some of it will be focused on tax cuts, there is a growing and overwhelming impetus for more infrastructure projects – roads, bridges, dams, etc. That will mean a flood of federal construction projects, and a great many contracts for the supplies and services that those projects will need – steel, paint, concrete, etc. Additionally, our new President and Congress will probably shift typical military procurement away from weapon systems designed to face the Soviet Union and more to those needed in the war on terror. All of this will mean a cascade of dollars flowing into government contracts, not only on the federal level but also, through grants, through state departments of transportation, etc.
For those of you who remember your history of federal procurement, government contracts really received a boost in the 1930s during Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. That was when the Bureau of Reclamation and other federal agencies began building the dams that we still use today, Hoover, Bonneville, Grand Coulee, and the Department of Interior improved many of our national forests. Many young men worked for the Civilian Conservation Corps in our national forests and many artists and writers painted murals on our federal buildings and wrote travel guides for our states.
We may well be returning to those days. So the concept of socio-economic contracting will return to its original meaning, not just to help isolated specific segments of the economy, but to help the economy as a whole, by spreading federal dollars throughout the system so that companies can hire new workers and pay them decent wages as set by Davis Bacon or the Service Contract Act. So those workers will then be able to buy food, clothes and shelter for their families.
Sincerely, Jim Nagle
701 Pike Street, Suite 1700 Seattle, Washington 98101-3930 Phone: (206) 623-3427 Fax: (206) 682-6234
[Contract to only most recent post]
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