"Save Your Salary" Contracting Initiative
The goal of the initiative is to produce savings, that in aggregate for the fiscal year (FY) would be greater to or equal to each Contracting Officer's (CO) salary, when compared to the government estimates (IGE) for all of the CO's assigned Purchase Requests (PR) during that FY. Upon receiving a PR, the IGE is placed into an excel tracker sheet along with other PR info. When an award obligation is made for each PR, ...more »
The goal of the initiative is to produce savings, that in aggregate for the fiscal year (FY) would be greater to or equal to each Contracting Officer's (CO) salary, when compared to the government estimates (IGE) for all of the CO's assigned Purchase Requests (PR) during that FY. Upon receiving a PR, the IGE is placed into an excel tracker sheet along with other PR info. When an award obligation is made for each PR, the final cost of procurement is entered into the tracker sheet for the corresponding PR. The IGE & award amounts are then added/subtracted to show the overage or savings produced. Savings/overages beyond each CO's salary, can be used to evaluate competitive promotions, FY awards, and identify competitive weaknesses within certain types of procurement. Simplistically, it will also allow each CO to justify their salaries, improving self-worth, self-confidence, and quantifying the benefits of their hard work. Generally, it will also permeate a culture of savings through competition, which has historically been in opposition to the "dirty little secret," of government contracting, which is, "If we don't spend it this year, we won't get it next year." This system drives inflationary budgets regardless of realistic need. As the government has become more reliant on contracted work over the last 2 decades, the current culture encourages our CO's to overspend in the interest of their agency's budget. To correct the inflationary movement of contracting, a cultural change is needed. One that both excites and attracts the types of CO's that want to save taxpayers dollars. I am a Lead CO for the National Park Service, and I realize this idea may turn me into the most hated man in contracting, because IGE's are notoriously too low, but I also know how good it feels to tell an irate taxpayer, "You do pay my salary, but I can honestly say you got way more than you paid for, and I have an excel tracker that proves it."
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