How the .Gov works

[VatorMan]

I know a lot of you think that once something is decided, some kind of magic happens and walla ! It is taken into play.

So..... A typical .gov works like this. 1. Department head says I want X to happen. Chooses a lead. Lead requests funding for said project. Congress argues and eventually provides funding. Once funding is procured, lead chooses initiator. Initiatior works with Procurement Dept. to choose contractor(s) available to bid on the requirement. One is selected. Typically the others sue to find out why they weren't selected. If all the paperwork is correct, ( which in most cases it isn't, ) Procurement proceedes. If not, procurement is held up till all offerors have either settled or been told to **** off. Once the notice to proceed is given, then the magic happens.

Under our current procurement (FAR) initiative, nothing will ever happen in a reasonable time span. NOTHING. So when D.Trump say day of, it will happen- well, it won't.

Remember, this is with highly motivated personnel. Under the current environment, a project MIGHT see light of day in a year.

I support .Gov change. I'm just trying to let you know the reality.

[Craig]

As an employee of a general contractor that pursues this work...you forgot about the part where during this time period, all of our costs go up and we have to figure out if it's still worth pursuing the job and maybe lose money, or bail and back out and risk being sued or blacklisted...and lose money.

I took a job briefly that all of the pursuits were FARS, when I was told I couldn't talk to a subcontractor without one of our lawyers in the room or on the call, I quit.

[John Wiz]

You really under played this;

For any major acquisition the .Gov may spend 3-5 years for their 'experts' coming up with requirements for new said widget (and in some cases over 10).

Then .Gov will send out said Request for Proposal as a draft and request industry provide feedback/questions.

Of course since said 'experts' are anything but experts, many of the requirements cannot be met (or are ridiculous), so another year or two will be spent clarify/updating the requirements before an official Request for Proposal will go out.

This proposal process can also take over 6 months, with close to another 6 months or more to evaluate said proposal. Because these proposals have to be submitted in hard copy (with backup) and X number of copies of each volume, I've seen a proposal take a pallet in order to ship it. Since these must be delivered by a specified time, there is usually a second copy prepared and shipped in case the first doesn't make it. Then .Gov will have their 'experts' review the proposals.

Evaluation will take over 6 months, and then after award there will usually be a protest, which will take another 60-90 days. Usually .Gov does not make the selection in the time period they specified, so they will go back out to industry to have them either hold their price or update (which is a whole other effort). Of course it's not as simple as a single price, there are usually very complicated pricing models that are based on options, and award dates and a variety of other scenarios, that make repricing a time consuming task, which they usually want in days - but take weeks to update.

So from initial start to award could be anywhere from 6 to 13 years (or more) before a program actually begins.....

And it doesn't stop there, after award, every one of those requirements needs to be met and tested. There could be tens of thousands requirements, and each one needs to be tested.

Also, some of the documents submitted can be over 1,000 pages, these are updated numerous times during the program. Each time they are submitted, they must be reviewed, comments are provided which must be adjudicated and corrected - after which the document is submitted again. One program I've done had over 100 deliverables, some one time, many multiple times.

And you wonder why a hammer can cost $500.00, it's not the hammer, it's all the documentation, and testing.

This is just a summary, actual programs are much, much worse....

Might have been better to say 'Why the .Gov doesn't work'...

[DAB]

I bought a pistol. Walked in, picked it out. Paid, went home. Filled out one form.

Govt wants to buy a pistol they create 300+ pages describing the pistol they want.

:faint:

[Aerovette]

Although the timeline is extensive, my company has not experienced the timelines or red tape described. The longest we have been involved in has entered year three.

[VatorMan]

Well JW, I said motivated. You CAN get work done in a "short" (year) period of time if everyone in the team is motivated. Especially contracting.

[John Wiz]

Well JW, I said motivated. You CAN get work done in a "short" (year) period of time if everyone in the team is motivated. Especially contracting.

I've seen it take less than a year, if the program was in the couple of million range, when you're looking at a program that can be in hundreds or million to over a $1B, never less than 5 years.

We have documents that have not been approved in under a year.....

[mrvette]

Abject laziness and stupidity......most of my friends who worked for the .gov as employees used to brag about doing nothing and paid so much....I really blew it in not pursuing .gov work some decades ago.....

:sadangel:

[JRD77VET]

Well JW, I said motivated. You CAN get work done in a "short" (year) period of time if everyone in the team is motivated. Especially contracting.

We are in the middle of a .gov job at work right now. It's basically a 6" wide by 1" thick hollow aluminum extrusion to put water on an aircraft carrier deck during takeoff.

Specs called for extrusion "123" from company "ABC" with specs xyz

We order 1000 feet of extrusion, .gov inspector accepts it when it came in. We go to machine the features and discover one feature is acceptable on the manufacturing but not on the machining print. It was off by .005 ( one quarter of the thickness of a paper matchbook cover)

It took close to 9 months to get a variance approved. :slap:

Not only was this material taking up space in our shop, we had to pay for the extrusion during the time the .gov was deciding whether their spec could be amended. :banghead:

[mrvette]

Those are the dead weight idiots that are nearly impossible to fire.

An ages old neighbor friend and I met up because our daughters are same age and also friends.....he and I share car and gun hobby interests.....He worked for the DOD, Nav Air...engineering.....his dept. hired a certain gal as a secretary, and immediately upon showing up on the first day, showed a certain attitude of total non cooperation and screw it I not doing SHIT!!!!

Took him two YEARS of documentation and time/effort to finally FIRE HER ASS!!!!! TWO years of her lazy ass setting behind some desk and disrupting the office and agitation of others.......:issues: