Land management agency impact stories...

Working for feds is a PITA to begin with. To make it worth while and to be covered, rates are usually higher when bidding work to them. Typically, it seems like one of the fed employees only job is to try and get the contractor to do as much extra work as possible. Its like their job description is to try and stick it to the contractor. After decades of this being the case, people are cautious.
 
Working for feds is a PITA to begin with. To make it worth while and to be covered, rates are usually higher when bidding work to them.
Having successfully bid on and completed a number of federal projects during my career, I concur that it is more challenging and rates are higher. However, there are reasons for that. First of all, worker wages are often determined by a relatively higher rate, such as required by Davis-Bacon. Standards, either imposed by Congress or by stringent department policies, are more challenging. Hours and working conditions are often more limited, with little flexibility for what may be contractor desires. Plans and specifications are usually more well defined and alternate or substituted materials or techniques are mostly not allowed.

Its like their job description is to try and stick it to the contractor.
Accountability for taxpayer dollars and for meeting the stringent standards afore mentioned is the responsibility of a quality assurance person who oversees the project, typically more closely and critically than that of a private industry project quality control person. If you are accustomed to being able to be more free and flexible in mobilizing, procurring your needed materials, and conducting your work ... then perhaps you feel intimidated ... like quality control is trying to "stick it to the contractor."
It's all in understanding how the federally funded projects are accomplished and how the strict compliance is integral to the deal. If you are a gubment hater going in, likely you will come out of it feeling like "they stuck it to you". Conversely, if you bid, contract, mobilize, complete work as specified ... with commensurate costs covered to allow a nice profit, then you and your wage earners will feel like the taxpayers have allowed you a great opportunity.
 
No. That is not remotely true. Fed work is typically bid a little higher than private work, but that's because the feds are difficult to deal with and everything takes 2x as long as it should.

A $100,000 quote is not turning in to a $1,000,000 quote.
I was being sarcastic. I've seen a helluva lot of $10k quotes turn into $20k quotes though. And the facts are that it's almost always from someone who complains constantly about their tax dollars. Oh the irony.
 
Working for feds is a PITA to begin with. To make it worth while and to be covered, rates are usually higher when bidding work to them. Typically, it seems like one of the fed employees only job is to try and get the contractor to do as much extra work as possible. Its like their job description is to try and stick it to the contractor. After decades of this being the case, people are cautious.
It's not the employees who want this. It's the contracting officials who are following the laws that come from congress. Just remember, every single time someone screams "accountability and transparency" you can add at least three more rules or regulations to a contracting process. Believe me, the employees don't want it any more than you do.

I've said this whole time if it's actually efficiencies they want to find, all they have to do is ask career employees where to find it. If a person thinks its tough working with "the government" from the outside, they should try it from the inside sometime.
 
Having successfully bid on and completed a number of federal projects during my career, I concur that it is more challenging and rates are higher. However, there are reasons for that. First of all, worker wages are often determined by a relatively higher rate, such as required by Davis-Bacon. Standards, either imposed by Congress or by stringent department policies, are more challenging. Hours and working conditions are often more limited, with little flexibility for what may be contractor desires. Plans and specifications are usually more well defined and alternate or substituted materials or techniques are mostly not allowed.


Accountability for taxpayer dollars and for meeting the stringent standards afore mentioned is the responsibility of a quality assurance person who oversees the project, typically more closely and critically than that of a private industry project quality control person. If you are accustomed to being able to be more free and flexible in mobilizing, procurring your needed materials, and conducting your work ... then perhaps you feel intimidated ... like quality control is trying to "stick it to the contractor."
It's all in understanding how the federally funded projects are accomplished and how the strict compliance is integral to the deal. If you are a gubment hater going in, likely you will come out of it feeling like "they stuck it to you". Conversely, if you bid, contract, mobilize, complete work as specified ... with commensurate costs covered to allow a nice profit, then you and your wage earners will feel like the taxpayers have allowed you a great opportunity.
There is a ton of truth in this post. In my experience, good contractors love govt contracts and bad ones hate them.

Davis-Bacon wages are less an issue than a decade ago, at least where I contract, because they haven't gone up commensurate with inflation, so the are much more comparable now than previously.
 
If congress would raise the limit on services and contracting, that would be the first massive gain in efficiency to be had. Those have been stuck at $2k and $2.5k for decades. You can't get anyone to do anything these days for $2k! So that means writing up a contract and going through that laborious process. With a flick of a switch, raising those limits would save taxpayers millions if not billions every year, and more importantly, keep a lot of that business LOCAL instead of going out to a business that specializes in gov contracts from states away. Turns my stomach every time I see it, and I've seen it a lot.
 
We had a meeting last week, with travel cards and purchase cards frozen, my agency almost rescended all timber sale contracts. We had to assure HQ we could still manage inspections without cards. We had to shuffle inspections around. Foresters are having to stay with families/friends to stay overnight. Right now the majority of our contracts are bark beetle salvage sales. If we pull contractors, 1000s of acres will go to waste. It's hard enough to keep competitive bids, if we screw all those guys it'll be hard to sell in the future.

It's just a temporary stay. We use security seals on each load to ensure accountability. We had an order in before the cut off, but it hadn't been processed. So if cards aren't unfrozen before we run out, we'll either have to buy seals out of pocket or cut contracts off. It's a mess
 
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