From: | Aimee Houghton <aimeeh@igc.org> |
Date: | Wed, 16 Oct 1996 13:19:46 -0700 (PDT) |
Reply: | cpeo-military |
Subject: | PERFORMANCE-BASED CONTRACTING |
From: Aimee Houghton <aimeeh@igc.org> Here's another comment I receive in response to my notes on a performance-based system. Lenny You are right on with your comment about efficiency and community involvement in cost contract administration. Cost vehicles are more difficult to administer, and the bureaucracy is not often responsive to this additional (or differently applied) resource need. However, with a little innovation, proper management is possible and should provide a much higher quality product (quicker, better, less expensive, etc.) Often, the agencies who do cost contracting spend way too much time "at the front end" negotiating down to the paper clips and filling files with useless information. That leaves less resources to get out into the field to do proper cost control and quality assurance. Since cost contracts are most appropriately used to do work with a large component of uncertainty, it makes sense to spend less time negotiating and more time working together in the field. It is in the field where huge cost savings can be realized. And, the beauty of a cost contract is that you can actually incentivize this kind of behavior (i.e. creativeness in the field). The key to spending less time negotiating is through parametric cost estimating (often using expert systems, like the Navy's Cost-to-Complete software) which establishes a reasonable "ball-park" target cost for the specific work. That way the government is reasonably assured that any cost savings are legitimate, not the result of the contractor "high-balling" his proposal. There is no question that it would be very valuable to get the community involved with evaluating (and probably even working together in the field with) the cost contractors. This opens up all kinds of potential difficulties which will tend to turn the contracting officers' ears off to the idea. However, it could be legally done. As long as a qualified Technical Representative is present in the field or reviews the feedback (to ensure that no one is inappropriately "directing" the contractor), the feedback and creative ideas that the community could provide could save untold millions and result in a better product. I have always struggled with the problem of not having enough "eyes and ears" on our sites. It is a fact that the more people you have constructively watching the site work, the better the contractor will work. Certainly, it would take quite a bit of work to implement an idea like this, but I think it would be worth pursuing. | |
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