Nov 06, 2009
POGO Comments on New Contractor Accountability Database
Yesterday, POGO submitted a public comment on a proposed change to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) that would implement a government-wide contractor database similar in principle to POGO's Federal Contractor Misconduct Database.
Federal officials must consult this database--called the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System (FAPIIS)--to check on prospective bidders' integrity and performance backgrounds before awarding contracts. Contractors with federal contracts worth more than $10 million must submit information for inclusion in FAPIIS (i.e. data pertaining to criminal, civil and administrative proceedings involving violations of federal, state and local laws or contracts) and update that information on a regular basis.
As we've stated before, POGO strongly supports the establishment of FAPIIS for the positive impact it will have on contractor accountability, but we have various concerns that we were able to address in our public comment. Our concerns are so numerous and cover so many aspects of the proposed rule, in fact, that we felt compelled at the end of our comment to ask the FAR Councils to consider publishing a second interim rule and seek additional public comments.
One of our biggest concerns is that FAPIIS will be off-limits to the public. The non-public aspect of the database is especially confounding given the impression conveyed by then-candidate and now-President Obama that he would radically improve government transparency and public access to government information. We also question the proposed rule's interpretation of the various dollar thresholds set out in the law, warn that some of the existing government databases from which FAPIIS will draw information may not be reliable, highlight the lack of a clearly-established system of penalties for contractors who fail to comply with the law, suggest that special consideration be given as to how the system will keep track of contractors' aliases, subsidiaries and/or affiliates, and suggest that there should be no unwarranted restrictions on how information in FAPIIS gets retained and reviewed.
Overall, the proposed rule seems to diminish the benefits that could be derived from the database while downplaying or ignoring very important provisions in the law.
-- Neil Gordon
November 6, 2009 in Contract Oversight | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Doc Hastings's Defense Of RIK Calls for a Second Opinion
POGO blog readers know that Interior Secretary Salazar's decision to phase out the Royalty-In-Kind (RIK) program--and hopefully return to Royalty-In-Value collection that includes audits, verifiable data, and real oversight--is in the best interest of taxpayers receiving their fair share for their natural resources. So POGO was of course intrigued when we came across a letter that the ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, Representative Doc Hastings (R-WA), sent to the Secretary expressing concerns that the "Department will now end a program that has generated more than one hundred million dollars of additional revenues for the American people." Representative Hastings cites Minerals Management Service (MMS) data about the program's success, and tellingly does not include any independent analysis--likely because independent sources can't confirm MMS's findings. Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports have consistently found that MMS can't verify the data that they have is accurate, and the Interior Department's Inspector General found the RIK program had a culture of ethical failure. In essence, the RIK program has been in the best financial interests of industry, not taxpayers. So what's prompting Representative Hastings's defense of the RIK program?
A review of Representative Hastings's campaign contributions, provided by the Center for Responsive Politics, may provide an insight into his motivation: the oil and gas industry make up the largest share of his campaign earnings, and he receives more money from Exxon Mobil than anyone else in the House of Representatives. As the chart from the Center for Responsive Politics below shows, though, Representative Hastings is only one of many on the House Natural Resources Committee receiving funding from the oil and gas industry--though he still is among the lead breadwinners here, too.
Representative Hastings' letter does raise a legitimate concern about how the RIK program has been used to fill the the Strategic Petroleum Reserve--POGO has argued that this should be the only use of the program--but his concerns about taxpayers losing out are misguided at best, and intellectually dishonest at worst.
-- Mandy Smithberger
November 6, 2009 in Energy & Environment | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Morning Smoke: Swine Flu Preparation Wasn't Hog Wild
DCAA caught in the crossfire [Federal Computer Week]
Break for Companies in Bailout's Fine Print [The New York Times]
Fannie's Draws From Emergency Treasury Fund Reach $60 Billion [Bloomberg]
Treasury OKs Another Firm for Toxic Asset Program [Associated Press]
November 6, 2009 in Miscellaneous | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Nov 05, 2009
Some Good News on the Stimulus Front
A few months ago, POGO blogged about our concerns that many state and local governments with laws limiting contractors’ campaign contributions (meant to reduce the influence of private interests in the public contracting process) are facing obstacles to enforcing these “pay-to-play” laws on stimulus-funded contracts.
While none of those obstacles have been removed, the nonprofit, nonpartisan National Institute on Money in State Politics just released an analysis that found little influence of campaign contributions on stimulus contracts. By mashing Recovery.gov data with the Institute’s database of state-level political contributions, it found that “only 3.2 percent of the 3,285 recipients of ARRA-related contracts were also donors to state-level political campaigns during the 2008 and 2009 election cycles.”
-- Ingrid Drake
November 5, 2009 in Economic Recovery, SPOGO (on State Governments) | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Morning Smoke: Federal Acquisition Coalition Wants Universities to Include Procurement in Curriculum
New alliance hopes to spur new talent in procurement field [Government Executive]
Is the BLM practicing unsafe CX? [High Country News]
Flu outrunning vaccine, experts say [Washington Post]
GAO to report on GSA [Fedline]
Clash Looms on Banks [The Wall Street Journal]
HUD audits: $220M to go to at-risk agencies [USA Today]
Your Bailout Update (Nov. 2009): $400 Billion Outstanding [ProPublica]
Texans mount campaign to keep Army truck contract [Government Executive]
November 5, 2009 in Miscellaneous | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Five Ways Congress Can Ensure Health Care Advisory Panels Serve the Public Interest
On Tuesday, POGO joined 19 other groups in a letter urging Congress to ensure transparency in the federal advisory committees that are likely to emerge from health care legislation. Both chambers have put forth health care proposals that would create these panels, which would advise the government on everything from immunization policy to health care finance.
In order to ensure that members on the federal advisory committees are
serving the public's best interest, the groups recommend that the final
health care bill include provisions to do the following:
- Require that all information about each advisory panel, including a full audio or video record of each panel meeting, is accessible via the Internet;
- Actively seek out advisory panel members without conflicts of interest;
- Assess financial conflicts of interest, and strive to name only non-conflicted experts to advisory committees;
- When conflicts are unavoidable, require that any waivers given to a conflicted advisory board member and the reasons for granting the waiver are part of the public record; and,
- Specifically require disclosure of the names and backgrounds of each member, and whether they are serving as experts or to represent particular constituencies.
You can read the letter in full here.
-- Bryan Rahija
November 5, 2009 in Federal Advisory Committees, Health and Human Services, Open Government | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Nov 04, 2009
The Rocks That Burned: Interior Secretary Wants to End Profits on Leases Under Investigation
Last September, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar was interrogated by some
members of the House Natural Resources Committee to explain why he had canceled oil and gas leases for 77 parcels of federal land.
At the time, Salazar was mostly vague about the issues that concerned him about these leases, though when asked about oil shale leases,
Salazar said that he wouldn't further a policy of the "wholesale
giveaway of our public lands," as he believed that the previous
administration did.
It seems that among his concerns was that some of
these last minute awards would result in additional profits for leases
that the
Interior Department Inspector General (IG) and the Department of
Justice are investigating as part of a corruption probe of former
Interior Secretary Gale Norton, as a recent letter Secretary Salazar sent to the Interior IG seems to suggest.
In his request for an investigation into six oil shale lease addenda
Interior entered into January 15, 2009, Salazar notes: "These addenda
sought to amend existing Research, Demonstration and Development
leases, some of which are currently the subject of a pending
investigation by your office and the U.S. Department of Justice." POGO
is anxiously awaiting the results.
-- Mandy Smithberger
November 4, 2009 in Energy & Environment | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Morning Smoke: SEC Recruits Hedge Fund's General Counsel
Hedge Fund Counsel to Lead SEC's New York Examinations Group [The Wall Street Journal]
Blankfein, Dimon Met Feinberg Ahead of Pay Order, Records Show [Bloomberg]
Barney Frank On Financial Regulation Overhaul [Real Time Economics]
Some Sense on Defense Spending [New York Times]
KC-X Appeal [Air Force Magazine]
November 4, 2009 in Miscellaneous | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Nov 03, 2009
SIGIR: Applying Hard Lessons
Happy belated birthday SIGIR! Created in October 2004, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction has published numerous reports, issued nearly 400 recommendations, testified before Congress, and saved or challenged the expenditure of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars appropriated by Congress for Iraq. It has also published four lessons learned reports and a history of the Iraq reconstruction program.
What’s next? You would be correct if you answered … reforming the government to learn from both the successes and failures that have plagued relief, stabilization, reconstruction, and domestic governance programs in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Yesterday, POGO was lucky enough to take part in a brainstorming session on SIGIR’s draft recommendations and three proposals to improve civilian and military coordination during contingency operations. As I see it, the problem has been coordinating all the moving pieces: the White House creates policy, Congress authorizes agencies to act and appropriates funds, and the agencies (the Departments of Defense and State, USAID) are left implementing the planning and operations, and integrating it all together. Weaknesses in planning, operation, and integration have led to the waste, fraud, and abuse — such as duplicate programs and payments — that SIGIR has been identifying for years.
Without going into more details, SIGIR is going the extra mile in providing a framework that can improve complex contingency operations — Iraq and Afghanistan come to mind, but the U.S. has also been involved in Somalia, Haiti, and Bosnia in the past 15 years. The work in those areas has been very difficult and extremely varied in scope and substance. I’m unsure if there is a one-size-fits-all solution, but SIGIR is doing its best to place options on the table and to force policy makers to look toward the future.
-- Scott Amey
November 3, 2009 in Contract Oversight, Waste | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Morning Smoke: Wartime Contracting Commission Revisits DCMA / DCAA Relationship, Examines Use of Contractors in Iraq Drawdown
Wartime commission scrutinizes contractors' role in Iraq drawdown [Government Executive]
GE, Rolls To Redesign Part Of F-35 Engine [Reuters]
Chairwoman of FDIC raises concerns about new federal regulatory panel [The Hill]
Taxpayers Lose $2.3 Billion with CIT Bankruptcy [ProPublica]
Cost-Plus Questions Persist [Fedblog]
Proposal Circulates on New Civilian-Military Agency [The Washington Independent]
Holder’s Invocation of State Secrets Privilege Shields Government From Accountability [The Washington Independent]
'Paulson’s Gift' (to Everyone Except J.P. Morgan) [Real Time Economics]
Meet the Crooks Behind Your New Knee [Mother Jones]
Emanuel Said to Press for Sarbanes-Oxley Exemption [Bloomberg]
Dick Cheney and the use of classified information [The Washington Post]
November 3, 2009 in Miscellaneous | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
