The Approach of Obama Towards Contracting - Essay Example

Critical Analysis on News Article related to “Approach of Obama towards Contracting” Article Obama orders overhaul of `broken US contracting , The Seatle Times. The article brings out the stern opposition that Obama has against the massive irregularities observed in the government expenditure. It is reported that the doubling the contracts during the period of last eight years of administration by his predecessor has led to large scale “cost over run, frauds in the fund management and absence of accountability in the process”. Also it is reported that large number of officials have been charged with the crimes like acceptance of bribery and preparation of contract frauds. Most of the investigations into the transactions related to the U.S. interventions in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan could expose much severe similar incident - says the article. President Obama claims to achieve a significant saving of atleast U.S.$ 40 billion dollars an year through strong interventions in the contract awarding process. According to the reports, abolishing no-bid contracts and reducing the outsourcing level of government works to the private agencies are the major ones in the proposal. The articles communicates clearly the commitment of Barack Obama by emphasizing that the money from the people of America need to be utilized to satisfy their priorities rather than allowing it flow through the drains. The necessity of radically transforming the feeble system of contracting also adds to the Obama’s interest to provide a good public administration. The initiatives taken by the present President includes issuing clear directions to his Budget Chief for evolving appropriate guidelines to evaluate the existing contracts for their viability. Based on which they could be either modified or even cancelled. In addition, the Budget director is also asked to strictly monitor the entire no- bid contracts and the operations of the private companies working with the government also would give a fresh impetus into these things. The article substantiates the President’s claim with very clear figures. The award of contract for undertaking the restoration work of Iraq’s Oil production was through non-competitive manner to then Vice-President Dick Cheney. And, spending of millions of dollars without proper accountability in Iraq and Afghanistan, over spending in over 95 defence projects are some of the few specific references made by him. As per the content in the article, the message Obama spreads is very clear. Contracting works would no longer be in a flexible budget form, the fixed price of the contacts would soon force all the contractors to assess their costs in a realistic manner. Article 2 : Like Clinton, Obama Calls for Fewer Federal Contractors to Cut Spending, Washington Post The President Barack Obama has clearly laid an agenda of action to improve the use of taxpayers money. The general transformation is demanded in the pattern of work of government employees where the current style is to transfer everything to the contractors through no- bid contracts, which later have escalated tremendously. In the effort to improve the federal buying system, he plans to reduce the spending by 40 billion US dollars by keeping far less contractors. But this approach is expected to generate large-scale opposition with in the government system. The cultural change the new initiatives would cause is said to be the major reason for the opposition. The report says that the current state of affairs began with the Clinton administration’s attempt to reduce the workforce in an effort to reduce the red tape. And later Bush administration continued with it based on the philosophy of outsourcing and lean government. Inspite of all the limitations, Obama is very hopeful to achieve his mission through the support of the technology. Even the private professional service groups opinion that the government activities cannot reach the desired objectives without significant support from the private sector. The prevailing confusion in the government procurement process would be the biggest task facing President Obama according to leading procurement lawyers. The earlier reforms, which could not give the needed efficiency, continued over the years and culminated in the very mired state of affairs. President Obama hopes to improve the government functioning significantly in future with the clear understanding that for a high performance government require high performance contracting process. Critical Review The reports available from two different new papers on the Obama’s approach towards the new contracting rule were presented as two different views. The Seattle times have expressed their views by highlighting the necessity of such an intervention for better use of the public money. The offensive remark on the Bush administration and the negative impact of eight year republican rule emphasizes the needed intervention Barack Obama and his team need to undertake in the interest of the country. Throughout the article the author highlights the importance for such an intervention and doesn’t project any serious obstructions that might surface at any point of time. On the other hand Washington Post has given its opinion on similar topic as an outgrowth of the earlier democratic rule under Bill Clinton. The reforms initiated then have led to the present crisis being faced by the United States on the government purchases. Thus this newspaper takes a slightly different view such that though the Obama tasks are necessary it would not be easy for him to achieve the target with stiff opposition from the government employees. Thus the Washington Post tries to establish that this would be an exercise in futility or all this proposed reforms would ultimately end in the prevailing practices only. Thus the Seattle times has an optimistic view on the whole process while Washington post takes a pessimistic stand on the proposals. Travel card problem The destination card to Manchester need to be drawn to understand the validity of this claim. As the travel to Manchester is always by train, the destination card to Manchester would be able to disclose this information. The other destination card to Leeds could have the modes either by train or car and hence need not provide the exact information about the travel to Manchester. Also, the cards for modes needs not specifically relate to the desired destination. The card for trains could either be to Leeds or to Manchester. So is the case with cars too. Thus the destination card to Manchester alone could give the desired information. References Feller, B. (4 March 2009) Obama Orders overhaul of broken US contracting [Online] Available at [9 march 2009] OHarrow Jr, R.,(11 November 2008) Like Clinton, Obama Calls for Fewer Federal Contractors to Cut Spending [Online] Available at [9 March 2009] Read More