Hey Congress, Investigate This
Instead of conducting investigations that could result in more effective government, Congress is off investigating the use of celebrity doctors in ads for selected prescription drugs or “show trials” of oil company executives. Rather, Congress should investigate what the National Taxpayers Union (NTU) calls “a chronically ill procurement process.” In brief:
“Late yesterday, GAO announced that the Air Force "had made a number of significant errors that could have affected the outcome of what was a close competition between Boeing and Northrop Grumman," and announced that GAO investigators "denied a number of Boeing's challenges" because there was no "basis to conclude that the agency had violated the legal requirements with respect to those challenges." A third bidding process will likely occur.
“Now that the contract is essentially back to square one, neither the people who pay America's bills nor those who defend America's soil can afford further missteps -- not from the Air Force, the companies involved, or Congress," (NTU Vice President for Policy and Communications Pete) Sepp concluded. "Without major reforms to government purchasing practices, the future will hold more grim reminders of why the weapons acquisition process has been on GAO's own high-risk list for 17 years straight."
The U.S. General Accountability Office wrote in a three-page statement:
“Our review of the record led us to conclude that the Air Force had made a number of significant errors that could have affected the outcome of what was a close competition between Boeing and Northrop Grumman.”
The Air Force actually made seven separate mistakes, according to GAO. It seems the only winners so far are the Air Force bureaucrats who will be able to continue more months of paper-shuffling as the selection process is reopened. And who lost? As always -- the taxpayers. Why isn't Congress trying to find ways to improve the effectiveness of the procurement process?
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s report, entitled “Boeing back in tanker running” is here.