District elected officials have begun the hunt for funds to plug a gaping hole in the fiscal 2010 budget and to deal with projected shortfalls for 2011 and 2012. Reforming contracting and procurement, where more than $1 billion are spent annually, is good management and a surefire way to save a bunch of money.
So, shout hallelujah. Mayor Adrian Fenty last week sent to the D.C. Council the Procurement Reform Act of 2010 to replace the existing law.
“I’m proud of the effort we put into this. But more important, I’m proud of the product that came out of that effort,” David Gragan, the city’s chief procurement officer (CPO), told me. The bill would, among other things, create a procurement training institute; restore some controls to the chief procurement officer; clarify the approval process for option year contracts; and create stronger sanctions for violators of the law.
“It makes clear that if anyone tries circumvent the act, they shall be fired,” Gragan said. Sanctions would target both frontline workers and supervisors.
Oddly, Ward 5 Councilman Harry Thomas called the legislation “redundant.” He said it was “premature for the Fenty Administration to introduce a contracting reform bill at this time.”
What?!
Problems with contracting and procurement have been documented for decades. In 2007, the federal Government Accountability Office issued a scathing indictment of the system. Fenty promised changes. Gragan has been working for 18 months on the reform bill.
Thomas’ gripe is that “no one from the administration talked with him.” That’s a perfect example of the charge I made recently that some elected officials think it’s all about them.
The proposal isn’t perfect: It includes weak qualifications for the CPO job; doesn’t mandate the continuation of the integrity unit launched by Gragan; and leaves too many agencies with independent procurement authority.
Ward 3’s Mary Cheh, chairwoman of the council committee that oversees contracting and procurement, already has introduced her own omnibus reform bill. She said some aspects of the administration’s proposal “diminishes rather than strengthens” the CPO. It reduces the term of appointment and eliminates the “for clause” termination protection currently provided.
“The direction I am interested in is better trained people, more efficient operation and more independence. To the extent[the bill] departs from any of that, it’s not going to get a warm reception from me or my committee,” added Cheh.
Gragan said the proposed Procurement Training Institute would help train existing workers and “get folks thinking about careers in the industry while creating a pipeline where the city can get tomorrow’s procurement professionals.
“This might not necessarily be a lucrative field, but it’s rewarding, especially if you have a passion for public service,” he said, adding that the bill covers Cheh’s other points of interest including transparency, planning, and environmentally friendly mandates. “Those are representations of the same goal.”
Consonance between the Fenty administration and council? Oh, it really is celebration time.
Jonetta Rose Barras, hosts of WPFW’s “D.C. Politics with Jonetta,” can be reached at [email protected]
