The District’s contracting and procurement system has invited waste, fraud and abuse since the days of Marion Barry Jr.’s first mayoral administration. Last year, violations — mostly by city officials — affected every aspect of the government, including day care services, construction of recreation facilities, lottery games and housing for AIDS sufferers.
So, Ward 3’s Mary Cheh and 11 other council members deserve some credit for introducing last week the Omnibus Procurement Reform Amendment Act of 2010. After all, hundreds of millions of public dollars are at stake.
The proposed legislation would create a contracting ombudsman, require certification of certain workers in the Office of Contracting and Procurement, develop a single Web site, mandate environmental impact studies, and change the qualification of Contract Appeals Board members.
I should be happy with this gift; it’s the thought that counts. But reform legislation should solve problems — not create more.
Cheh’s bill would needlessly extend the bureaucracy, require unnecessary reports, duplicate existing structures, fail to address problems caused by decentralization, minimally deal with lax enforcement and increase the cost of government.
“The introduction of the bill is the beginning of the conversation, not the end,” she told me. She said public hearings could yield some changes.
Let me get the process started: Cheh should refrain from putting every piece of legislation through the green environmental filter. Conducting an environmental impact analysis for all contracts in excess of $100,000 is far too costly and time consuming.
She should forget about establishing in 2012 an Office of the Procurement Ombudsman. It’s redundant. Chief Procurement Officer David Gragan already has an office that serves such a function. Further, the city has an independent inspector general and an auditor.
Cheh said she included an ombudsman because she had “some reservations” about CPO Gragan’s integrity unit. “It’s an admonition; it shows I’m alert and watching.”
Does she really need to create another bureaucratic unit to prove she’s doing her job?
“Conceptually, [Cheh’s] legislation is well-intentioned, and I respect what she is trying to do,” Gragan told me. He also said Mayor Adrian M. Fenty may introduce this week his own omnibus contracting legislation on which the CPO has been working for the past year.
“I think we will meld the two things together into best practices in order to serve the interest of District residents,” Gragan added.
That would be remarkable: the executive and legislative branches working together.
Who knows how complex the executive bill will be. This much is clear. Previous audits and reports about D.C. contracting and procurement identified three major ills: a diffused system with too many agencies having independent authority, lax enforcement and a lack of transparency.
The cure seems simple: Empower the chief procurement officer and return all contracting authority to that individual, terminate any government employee who circumvents or violates local laws, and conduct rigorous council oversight using facts — not shrill or reckless rhetoric.
Unfortunately, simplicity often evades the government.
Jonetta Rose Barras, host of WPFW’s “D.C. Politics With Jonetta,” can be reached at [email protected].
