Crisis Management: A Different Perspective
Crisis Management: A Different Perspective
When you think about it, “crisis management” is an oxymoron. If crisis was manageable, it wouldn’t be an unplanned occurrence, would it? When I relate crisis to government and public procurement, it takes on a different meaning altogether.
To paraphrase Plato, Democracy’s greatest weakness is its tendency for excess. I believe that the United States should receive a crisis management award, because the country manages to create and contribute to crises as a way of life! We are a crisis society. We manage and legislate for the exception, rather than the rule. We wait until our pants fall down before we requisition belts. We then pay an outrageous (unfunded) price for the crisis solution, which usually causes another crisis somewhere else. It is amazing!
Nothing seems to happen in government that isn’t caused by, or results in, some kind of crisis. We have become “crisis junkies” on a train going 80 miles an hour, while laying track at the same time! Will we stop before, or after, the train crashes?
Remember when the words “new and improved” excited us? Now, nothing short of “extreme” or “outrageous” gets our attention—often at the expense of our democratic ideals of ethical reason, fair competition, equity, mutual trust, and accountability. This has become alarmingly obvious in public procurement, from the Y2K scare, to wholesale decentralization, and excessive (and extravagant) exemptions to circumvent the law. The apparently passive acceptance of illegitimate sole source and emergency procurements has become the norm.
What is especially disconcerting is that public-procurement professionals can do little to change things until there is a crisis. Brace yourselves! The crisis is brewing.
Truth be told, the private sector, as a whole, would rather not work with governmental entities, and when the economy was good, some did not. However, the economy isn’t that good, and more and more businesses are pursuing government contracts. This translates into greater competition for business with government entities that are suffering from severe budget deficits. This would seem to work well for the government, wouldn’t it?
Unfortunately, the economic boom years left government procurement riddled with extensive corruption involving the big dollar procurements (which account for approximately 80 percent of the dollars spent), minimized involvement of procurement professionals, and poor to non-existent contract management. Excessive anti-competitive “bundling” and bid rigging of projects to benefit favored, big-business contractors has literally shut the competition door on smaller businesses. The result is less competition and higher prices for government. Sounds like a crisis to me.
The poor economy leaves smaller businesses no choice but to challenge and scrutinize government procurement’s sloppy and anti-competitive practices with protests and litigation. They have nothing to lose and everything to gain. These aren’t small “Mom and Pop” shops, but rather, sophisticated operations that are capable of bringing government to a screeching halt. I know this to be true. Myself and other retired public-procurement professionals are being contracted as investigative consultants and expert witnesses by such businesses and their legal firms.
We know government procurement, what questions to ask, where to look, and what documents to request for protests and litigious proceedings. Results have been most impressive in terms of large settlements, punitive damages awards, and criminal prosecutions of corrupt contractors and public officials. This crisis has only just begun!
Editor’s Note: Beau Grant, CPPO, is a Master Instructor for the National Institute of Governmental Purchasing (NIGP) and President of Beau-Geste Enterprises. Readers can reach Grant by e-mail at: [email protected].
