FedBlog is reporting that there are signs that federal contracting will come under increased scrutiny. At least at the Pentagon, using contractors instead of employees has increased costs dramatically.
I imagine that the major private sector contractor that might come under review at Social Security is Lockheed Martin which has a huge contract to do document scanning. I have no idea how the amounts paid Lockheed Martin compare to what it would cost to do the same job with federal employees. The problem is that Social Security management probably does not know either. The contract was almost certainly granted without ever considering federal employees as an alternative. That was out of the question in the Bush Administration.
I imagine that the major private sector contractor that might come under review at Social Security is Lockheed Martin which has a huge contract to do document scanning. I have no idea how the amounts paid Lockheed Martin compare to what it would cost to do the same job with federal employees. The problem is that Social Security management probably does not know either. The contract was almost certainly granted without ever considering federal employees as an alternative. That was out of the question in the Bush Administration.
From what I understand the Lockheed Martin contract is about creating the software for the hearing paperwork, such as managing exhibits, not the actual scanning of documents. SSA employees already scan and create electronic folders.
ReplyDeleteif they investigate and/or audit the lockheed contract and make the results public, somebody will be going to jail. It is an enormous and outrageous waste of money..hundreds of millions.
ReplyDeleteContracts for software development go back to the early 1980's in SSA. The one I remember is EDT's $17M affair back in the beginning of CMP. Lots and lots of deliverables got produced--Xerox boxes of paper. But, somehow, the software never sorta kinda got written. By EDT, that is. It ended up being mainly in-house, such as it was and initially, it wasn't much.
ReplyDeleteAs far as people going to jail (or almost doing so), we have the Paradyne equipment procurement scandal. Lots of SSAers in the then Office of Systems Development saw their careers take a turn for the worse, whether deserved or not.
SSA is more honest than most agencies, but it doesn't have the means to supervise contractors now any more than it did then. As for what these hearings will show, I'm not holding my breath while awaiting amazing revelations. We'll just have to wait and see. EDT only ripped off $17M. Hundreds of millions is something else. Is this the sort of thing that will unseat Astrue? Well, did he get a hunting trip to Scotland out of it? If he didn't, then he really is an amateur, isn't he?
When work is contracted to outside private companies, the amount paid to the people doing the work is less than what the rank and file earn at SSA. It ends up costing more than doing it in house for two reasons - management in these private companies make much more that SSA managers and the company has to make a big profit!
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