Federal Contractors Got Billions In Bonuses, Despite Performance: Report

washingtonpost.com:

Federal agencies have awarded billions in bonuses to contractors regardless of whether the work was deemed satisfactory, according to a Government Accountability Office report released last week.

Government-wide guidance issued in 2007 by the Office of Management and Budget recommended that agencies link award fees to results and prohibit payments for poor performance. That policy has saved hundreds of millions of dollars, the GAO reported.

Read the whole story: washingtonpost.com

Comments

[pastpartisan]

We are borrowing the stimulus money. More stimulus is equivlent to throwing gasoline on the fire. We can't possible pay the debt back... legitemately. The government will use inflation to cheapen the debt. Unfortuneatly, this will hurt the poor, the working class, and the elderly on fixed income. Reckless government spending is not a Liberal value. http://www.alexandria.lib.va.us/link/redir.pxe?www.iamned.com

Stimulus is a joke of a concept; it doesn't end up with real economic growth in the long term. Even the New Deal failed to increase private investment. It wasn't until 1941 that domestic private investment reached 1929 levels. The fact that the first stimulus has failed to stop the bleeding yet isn't surprising. Our government deficit for the year which is over 20% of GDP (when the omnibus bill, first stimulus, bailouts, and on-budget deficit are summed) is unsustainable and something's gotta give, whether it be the lenders or the interest rates.

hat tip to http://www.alexandria.lib.va.us/link/redir.pxe?www.iamned.com

[jsgaetano]

Failing upward- it's the way of conservatives.

[vippy]

and? My question is why don't we go after them and get the loot back?

[rhubardpi]

Whoooaaaa Nellliiiee­eee....don­'t tell me Congress is run by crooks who help out business crooks. I worked for the big, bad IRS for 28 years, in the Collection Division, and when my little independent review found IRS employees allowing delinquent taxpayers, who owed hundreds of thousands of dollars, to pay nothing even though the case file showed a clear ability to pay much or all of the debt, I got angry. I complained to no avail, even face to face with then IRS Commissioner Rosotti. He told me he did not believe what I was telling him because it would be a violation of IRS procedures to not compell payment from those who could pay. I said I had proof, which were taxpayer case reviews at my desk which prove what I said. His response was to look around the room and say, "Are there any other questions." Rosotti should have been brought to trial for willfully aiding and abetting non-payment of taxes, a felony. He knows who I am and if he doesn't like what I am sasying he can sue me. I still have copies of taxpayer case reviews, which is illegal for me to have since I'm now retired from IRS. I wrote to Obama, Geithner, Sen Ennis and Sen Tester on 1-28-09 about this issue, I have had no response. I sent them copies of the taxpayer case write-ups. Maybe they are waiting for the US Marshalls to come arrest me.

[vippy]

Sad, we suspected as much and the usual keeps on going, crooks will cover for the other crooks!
Vote all incumbents out of office regardless of party affiliation. Both are corrupt, We can do better than this.

[dadw5boys]

Bush was renewing contracts until his last day in office and this is the effect !!!!!!!!1

Strap Bush to a camel and drop it in Afganistan.

[Bcasey11]

lets get rid of the poop of a government agency that is homeland security, created by the patriot act for no real reason, under the guise of protecting the homeland, including, prolonged detention for suspicious apperance, waste of MONEY and a attack on LIBERTIES

[HappyRabbit]

Which begs the larger question. Why are so many jobs that were once performed by federal employees, now sub-contracted? There is no doubt that it costs more and there is less control, so why not move away from this Republican initiative to reward political contributors?

[SangZe]

Obamanomics at its best.

[Cambridge9]

Hey, SangZe - read the article!!

While the Rethugs are complaining about money being wasted they really should look at the last eight years. The GAO reports that these bonuses were given during the last administration to departments (Homeland Security is a prime example) where the performance was less than deserving. There is to be a Committee hearing to question the practice within the next few weeks..

[RoloTomassi]

No, that would be BushCo policies still at work.

[brownstoness]

With consumer deleveraging and credit crunch - we cannot have any quick recovery - L is best case scenario. Speculative stock buying and PPT euphoria is no substitute for anything.

Credit is falling so much - private credit decreased by $1.8 Trillion is the first quarter, consumer credit by $90.7 billion (annualized). Household net worth down by $13.87 trillion.

There is no trigger for recovery - new technology, new markets, demographics, new ideas. Green is just a boondoggle and BRICs can only do so much. JPM and GS etc are just trying to create another bubble - it suits their ends not yours.

hat tip to http://iamned.blogspot.com

[hulagirrrl]

I really wish to see an open to the media firing of these money wasters, and just for good measure, let us prosecute the criminal banksters along with them....

[Tiggy]

"We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our selection between economy and liberty or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debts as that we must be taxed in our meat in our drink, in our necessities and comforts, in our labors and in our amusements, for our callings and our creeds...our people.. must come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, give earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses; and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live. We have not time to think, no means of calling the mis-managers to account, but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow suffers. Our landholders, too...retaining indeed the title and stewardship of estates called theirs, but held really in trust for the treasury, must...be contented with penury, obscurity and exile.. private fortunes are destroyed by public as well as by private extravagance. This is the tendency of all human governments. A departure from principle becomes a precedent for a second; that second for a third; and so on, till the bulk of society is reduced to mere automatons of misery, to have no sensibilities left but for sinning and suffering... And the fore horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression." --Thomas Jefferson

[Jaywalkker]

There's no such thing as "party of small government." The difference between Dems and Repubs is that the GOP wants to sub-contract everything and the Dems want to keep it under a federal roof.

[Mother77]

Ahhh, those no-bid contracts for the friends of you know who....

[Cambridge9]

These are not for 'no-bid' contracts. These bonuses are for less than satisfactory work done by our own government agencies. Read the whole article.

[Thucydides Jr.]

Error, C9. The bonuses went to contractors FOR agencies, not the agencies themselves. The agencies were criticized for scoring projects far higher than they should have and awarding bonuses based on those scores. I think You need to read the whole article.

I do not recall if any of those contractors had no-bid contracts. They might have, but we would need more info.

[OpusIsUnderTheBed]

It's the United States Government. Money is no object. Ever.

[hulagirrrl]

Oh yes it is, down the line it is. Soldiers and sailors get substandard outsourced food, supplies to maintain readiness are not always there, the little things, paint, screws, office supplies.

[PhilipTaylor]

If our Government is this corrupt can we believe the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) when it claims we can not save enough to offset the 15% more people that need coverage!

Is the CBO owned by Insurance, Healthcare, and BIG Business interests?

The CBO is purposefully ignoring the "COST OF DOING NOTHING" as a Baseline for their calculations.

[4TJefferson]

Name one outfit or country that is not corrupt.

[PhilipTaylor]

What is your point?

Just because the other kids do it does not my you should!