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Clause of the Board of Contract Appeals Bar Association A House of Cards Falls: Why “Too Big to Debar” is All Slogan and Little Substance
by Jessica Tillipman, Assistant Dean for Outside Placement at The George Washington University Law School, Jan 13, 2012, 80 Fordham Law Review Res Gestae 49 (2012), GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2012-8, GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 2012-8
Abstract A House of Cards Falls: Why Too Big to Debar is All Slogan and Little Substance is a critical response to the article, FCPA Sanctions: Too Big to Debar" by Drury D. Stevenson and Nicholas J. Wagoner, which aptly demonstrates a common, yet fundamentally flawed, understanding of the FAR 9.4 suspension and debarment regime. "Too Big to Debar" asserts that when large government contractors violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), they should be punished by being debarred from the procurement system. Indeed, despite FAR 9.4s clear directive to use debarment only for the purpose of protecting the government, not to punish past misconduct, "Too Big to Debar" completely disregards this fundamental tenet of the suspension and debarment regime (and the regulations plain language) by repeatedly referring to debarment as punishment. "Too Big to Debar" also misrepresents the true consequences of debarmentthe corporate death penalty. By discounting the reality of debarment, while artificially amplifying its impact on FCPA deterrence, the authors make clear that they are wedded to their own ideas of what the debarment regime should be, than to what it actually is.
If FCPA enforcement has touched every industry, why do the authors single out large government contractors? Because they canlarge government contractors are not sympathetic. Even though nearly all companies, regardless of their size or line of business are exposed to the potential misconduct of rogue employees, the authors expect government contractors to defy the statistically impossible. In addition to glaring factual errors, selective quotes, and incorrect assumptions, Too Big to Debar appears to assert that it is morally wrong to reward government contractors that have misbehaved. By injecting theories of morality and punishment into an administrative regime, the article elevates the simple, almost visceral desire for large-scale retribution over the more nuanced best interests of the government. A House of Cards Falls exposes Too Big to Debar for what it is: a populist sound bite used to vilify and bash contractors without regard for nuance or reality.
McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP Government Contracts Team Publishes A Comprehensive Government Contractor Business Systems Compliance Guide, WASHINGTON, DC (December 13, 2011)
The law firm of McKenna Long and Aldridge LLP (MLA) announces the publication of the MLA Government Contract Business Systems Compliance Guide, the first comprehensive guide designed to assist DOD contractors, as well as any contractor selling to the government, in their assessment of the acceptability of their business systems under the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Business Systems Interim Rule, effective on May 18, 2011. The MLA Government Contract Business Systems Compliance Guide provides comprehensive guidance for contractors to assess, based on their circumstances, the adequacy of each of the six covered business systems: accounting and billing, purchasing, estimating, material management and accounting, government property, and earned value.
“The DoD Rule represents a very significant government effort to regulate contractor business practices. For contractors doing business with the DoD, either directly or indirectly as a subcontractor, the rule is now a critical element of both a contractor’s competitive position in the government contracts marketplace and its risk management,” said MLA Government Contracts Partner Tom Lemmer, one of the guide’s authors. “Compliance avoids substantial billing withholds and other restrictions on a contractor’s cash flow, exclusion from or evaluation down-scoring in competitive procurements, and negotiation difficulties when the government seeks to mitigate its risk from what it believes is an inadequate business system. Contractors doing business with other than DoD should anticipate that these same requirements will be imposed on their business systems. This guide should serve as a government contractor’s first resource when assessing compliance with this significant rule,” added Lemmer.
In addition to Lemmer, authors of the MLA Government Contract Business Systems Guide include MLA Government Contracts partners Jay Gallagher, Steven Masiello and Kevin Slattum.
The MLA Government Contract Business Systems Compliance Guide makes use of MLA's substantial experience to provide knowledgeable contractor personnel with the necessary information needed to make an appropriate assessment. The guide is available here and on request by contacting Nicole Campbell at ncampbell@mckennalong.com.
The WTO
’s Revised Government Procurement Agreement - An Important Milestone
Toward Greater Market Access and Transparency in Global Public Procurement
Markets, by Robert D. Anderson World Trade Organization, Steven L. Schooner
George Washington University - Law School, Collin D. Swan, George Washington
University - Law School GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2012-7, GWU Law
School Public Law Research Paper No. 2012-7, The Government Contractor, Vol. 54,
No. 1, p. 1, January 2012
Abstract: In December of 2011, the Parties to the World Trade
Organization Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) adopted significant
revisions to the Agreement. The revised Agreement comprises (a) a much-needed
modernization of the text of the Agreement, (b) an expansion of related
market-access commitments by the Parties, and (c) a set of Future Work Programs
intended to enhance transparency among the Parties and improve the
administration of the Agreement. In these unstable economic times, the
importance of the GPA and its improvements cannot be overstated.
This article also bemoans the media’s misrepresentation of the ongoing
process of China's negotiated accession into the GPA. China continues to invest
resources in upgrading its public procurement regime as it negotiates with the
GPA Parties to open its government purchasing markets to systematic
international competition.
Dead Letter
Prohibitions and Policy Failures: Applying Government Ethics Standards to
Personal Services Contractors, by Collin D. Swan George Washington
University - Law School, George Washington Law Review, Vol. 80, No. 2,
February-March 2012, GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2012-3 GWU Law School
Public Law Research Paper No. 2012-3
Abstract: The last two decades have been marked by numerous
political efforts to reduce the size of the federal workforce and declare the
end of the era of big government. These efforts left the federal government
strapped for personnel and resources and have forced many agencies to
increasingly rely on service contractors in general, and personal services
contractors in particular, to fulfill their mandates. According to the Federal
Acquisition Regulations, a personal services contract is a contract that creates
an employer-employee relationship between the contractor and the federal
government. Despite a longstanding and, arguably, outdated regulatory
prohibition on the use of personal services contracts, many agencies are
increasingly employing personal services contractors in positions traditionally
reserved for government employees. The result is an absurd situation in which
government ethics laws apply differently to service contractors and federal
employees who work alongside each other, perform similar discretionary tasks,
and have the same potential to engage in corrupt practices.
This Note argues that the personal services prohibition represents
an outdated and inefficient method of protecting the government’s interest
and should be abolished. Given the government’s current reliance on
service contractors, procurement officials should not be concerned with whether
a contract creates an employment relationship with the government, but instead
with whether contractor personnel are being properly managed and supervised.
Congress should thus explicitly abolish the personal services prohibition and
apply government ethics laws to personal services contractors. This would reduce
the ability of personal services contractors, who often perform discretionary
functions on the government’s behalf, to act in their own personal
interest to the detriment of the government’s mission.
Beyond Ex Post
Expediency An Ex Ante View of Rescission and Restitution, Richard R. W.
Brooks Yale University - Law School, Alexander Stremitzer, UCLA School of Law,
Washington and Lee Law Review, Vol. 68, No. 3, p. 1171, 2011 Yale Law &
Economics Research Paper UCLA School of Law, Law-Econ Research Paper
Abstract: It is commonly held that if getting a contractual remedy
was costless and fully compensatory, rescission followed by restitution would
not exist as a remedy for breach of contract. This claim, we will demonstrate,
is not correct. Rescission and restitution offer more than remedial convenience.
Rational parties, we argue, would often desire a right of rescission followed by
restitution even if damages were fully compensatory and costless to enforce. The
mere presence of a threat to rescind, even if not carried out, exerts an effect
on the behavior of parties. Parties can enlist this effect to increase the value
of contracting.
Contract
Interpretation: What is it About?, David McLauchlan, Victoria University of
Wellington - Faculty of Law, October 5, 2009
Abstract: In recent
times contract interpretation has become one of the most contentious areas of
the law of contract. There are fundamental divisions among commentators,
practitioners and judges (often writing extra-judicially) as to the nature of
the task and the permissible aids to interpretation. This article highlights the
reasons for these divisions and suggests that the position of those who advocate
a liberal approach to the latter issue is sometimes misunderstood. The author
argues that there are no convincing reasons of principle, policy or convenience
for refusing to receive evidence of prior negotiations and subsequent conduct:
in particular, admitting such evidence is not, as commonly thought, inconsistent
with the objective approach to interpretation. However, at the same time it is
stressed that it will only be in relatively exceptional cases that the evidence
will provide a helpful or reliable guide to the true intention of the parties.
The
Jurisdiction of the Court of Federal Claims and Forum-Shopping in Money Claims
Against the Federal Government, by Gregory C. Sisk University of St. Thomas
School of Law (Minnesota), November 21, 2011, U of St. Thomas Legal Studies
Research Paper No. 11-39
Abstract: Over the past decade, the
United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has issued a series of
opinions clarifying the jurisdictional priority of the Court of Federal Claims
(CFC) under the Tucker Act over claims against the United States that are means
to a monetary end, even if cleverly or mistakenly drafted as suits for
injunctive or declaratory relief under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA)
that could be filed in District Court. Because the APA expressly excludes
judicial review in District Court when an “adequate remedy” lies in
another court, the CFC retains its traditional and exclusive jurisdiction to
hear claims against the Federal Government that are adequately remedied by a
money judgment.
This venerable understanding was disturbed by an
aberrational decision a decade ago in the United States District Court for the
District of Columbia. In Cobell v. Babbitt, the District Court assumed authority
under the APA to adjudicate claims for mis-management of government-established
financial accounts for the distribution of profits derived from Native American
resources held in trust by the United States. The District Court aggressively
extended the Supreme Court’s 1988 decision in Bowen v. Massachusetts a
unique case arising from the Federal-State administration of the Medicaid health
care program that the Supreme Court had found unsuited for review in the CFC. To
add to the jurisdictional chaos, several tribes then filed breach of trust
claims in the District Court seeking an accounting and restitution, while
simultaneously filing parallel breach of trust lawsuits in the CFC that
forthrightly sought money damages.
In early 2011, in United States
v. Tohono O’odham Nation, the Supreme Court held that money judgment
lawsuits filed in the CFC must be dismissed if parallel litigation for specific
relief is pending in the District Court. Reading 28 U.S.C. § 1500 as
“a robust response” to the burdens of duplicative litigation against
the United States, the Court held that a plaintiff may not maintain one lawsuit
in the CFC while a second lawsuit is proceeding in another court that arises out
of the same operative facts, even if the two lawsuits seek wholly different
relief. In rejecting the plaintiff’s claim of hardship in that case, the
Tohono Court observed that the plaintiff “could have filed in the CFC
alone and if successful obtained monetary relief to compensate for any losses
caused by the Government’s breach of duty.”
In the aftermath of Tohono, attempted detours from the CFC in what essentially
are money claims should be coming to an end. Recent rulings in both the Supreme
Court and the Federal Circuit confirm that, when “[a]t bottom it is a suit
for money,” then “the Court of Federal Claims can provide an
adequate remedy, and it therefore belongs in that court.”
Assessing
the Value of Future Accessions to the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement
(GPA): Some New Data Sources, Provisional Estimates, and an Evaluative Framework
for Individual WTO Members Considering Accession, by Robert D. Anderson,
World Trade Organization, Phlippe Pelletier World Trade Organization (WTO),
Kodjo Osei-Lah affiliation not provided to SSRN, Anna Caroline Müller World
Trade Organization (WTO), October 06, 2011
Abstract: The WTO
Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) is a plurilateral Agreement, meaning
that it comprises only a subset of the full Membership of the WTO. Currently, a
number of WTO Members that are not Parties to the Agreement either are actively
seeking accession to it, have commitments to accede to the GPA in their
respective WTO accession protocols or are, on their own initiative, looking at
the potential pros and cons of accession. In this context, there is a need for
factual information concerning the potential consequences of GPA accession, and
a framework to assess related benefits and costs. Of interest is both the
systemic value of such accessions i.e. the value they will add to the extent
of market access commitments under the Agreement and their potential benefits
and costs for individual acceding Parties.
This Working Paper introduces new sources of
information relevant to these topics (principally, the statistical reports that
have been circulated recently by GPA Parties) and shows their relevance to and
usefulness in assessing the above-noted matters. The Paper presents estimates of
the size of potential market access gains from pending and possible future GPA
accessions, based on simple extrapolations from the data sources identified.
Next, the Paper shows how the same data sources can assist in throwing light on
the potential benefits and costs of GPA accession for individual WTO
Members/countries contemplating accession. The latter use of the data is
developed in the context of a more general discussion of the benefits and costs
of GPA accession for individual WTO Members, also drawing on existing
literature, qualitative aspects and 'insights from the field' (i.e. our own work
in advising and conducting seminars for such countries and other WTO Members).
THE ABSENCE OF JUSTICE:
PRIVATE MILITARY CONTRACTORS, SEXUAL ASSAULT, AND THE U.S. GOVERNMENT'S POLICY
OF INDIFFERENCE Angela Snell, University of Illinois Law Review 2011, Note
Partial Abstract As the United States remains in Iraq and
Afghanistan, stories of abuse by private military contractors (PMCs) have
flooded the news. This Note focuses on an area of PMC crime that has garnered
less public attention and censure: sexual crimes against civilians in nonwar
zones. Emphasizing the lack of legal recourse for victims of sexual crime by
PMCs and the systematic failure of the United States to punish sexual crime
perpetrated by its own PMCs, the author argues that the United States should be
held liable for the sexual crimes that its contractors commit, including those
that occur outside of war zones.
The
Generalized System of Preferences after Four Decades: Conditionality and the
Shrinking Margin of Preference by Kevin C. Kennedy Michigan State University
College of Law, Michigan State University College of Law Journal of
International Law, Forthcoming MSU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 09-21
Abstract: The legal cornerstone of special and differential
treatment in favor of developing countries is the Generalized System of
Preferences. Since 1971 the year in which the Generalized System of
Preferences (GSP) was first authorized under GATT auspices GSP has become a
fixture in the trade policies of developed countries. The GSP marked its 40th
anniversary in 2011, an appropriate occasion to ask whether or not GSP remains
relevant. This article examines two sets of questions. First, are the conditions
that are an intrinsic part of the U.S. and EU GSP programs WTO-legal? Do the
preconditions and conditions to being designated as a GSP beneficiary under both
the U.S. and EU trade preference programs bear a rational relationship to the
overarching goal of economic development within beneficiary countries? Besides
examining the conditionality that is an inherent feature of the U.S. and EU GSP
programs, the second overarching question that this article addresses is whether
GSP remains economically relevant or whether instead the shrinking margin of
preference between the most-favored-nation (MFN) duty rate and the preferential
duty rate has reduced the efficacy of national GSP programs to the vanishing
point.
Assuming that these programs remain economically relevant, do the
conditions and limitations that are an integral part of them suffer from a lack
of coherency? Is it time to overhaul trade and development policy, at least with
respect to GSP programs? The authors answers to the first set of questions on
the legality of conditionality is a qualified no and to the second set of
questions on whether the GSP remains economically relevant is a qualified
“yes.” The author recommends reforming the GSP program and moving
beyond the GSP as a key piece of preference-granting countries trade and
development policy for developing countries. His prescription is fourfold: (1)
integrate and expand the four U.S. trade preference programs, (2) revisit and
substantially revise conditionality, (3) harmonize preferential rules of origin
at the international level, and (4) provide better focused and coordinated aid
for trade.
Congress
Considers Procurement Preferences for Medium- Sized Businesses, Though Concerns
Persist Regarding International Trade Obligations, Christopher R. Yukins
George Washington University - Law School, Avi M. Baldinger, Arnold & Porter,
The Government Contractor, Vol. 53, No. 37, 2011, GWU Legal Studies Research
Paper No. 587, GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 587
Abstract: Historically, the U.S. has made sweeping efforts to assist
small and disadvantaged businesses in federal procurement. Now, the U.S.
Congress is considering ways to extend similar assistance to medium-sized
businesses. Legislation currently before the House Small Business Committee,
H.R. 1812, would lend a special preference to medium-sized businesses that
participated in the General Services Administration mentor-protégé program.
Others have proposed simply extending existing small business preferences to
medium-sized businesses, and the Obama Administration has launched a program to
facilitate medium-sized businesses participation in the $500 billion federal
procurement market. All of these approaches must, however, be assessed against
U.S. obligations under international trade agreements, for some initiatives may
trigger concerns—or even retaliation—among major U.S. trading
partners. This article reviews the current initiatives in this area and the
three basic options currently open to policymakers seeking to assist
medium-sized businesses.
The
Civil-Military Interface in 21st Century Armed Conflict Private Military
Contractors and the Principle of Distinction, Emily Crawford University of
Sydney - Faculty of Law, August 14, 2011, Sydney Law School Research Paper No.
11/45
Abstract: Private military and security contractors have
been the focus of international attention in recent years, largely due to their
prominent role in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Given the increased
public scrutiny of private military and security contractors (PMSCs), there have
been numerous academic articles, newspaper articles, books, and other public
commentary, written on the phenomenon. A common theme underpinning nearly all
these approaches is the question ‘how does one classify the
contractor?’ Are they civilians, are they State agents, are they soldiers?
For the law of armed conflict (or international humanitarian law (IHL) as it is
also known), such classification is important because important consequences
flow from such classification. The law of armed conflict outlines very specific
rules regarding who may legitimately participate in armed conflict, and who may
not. The law divides the population into two basic categories—combatants
and civilians. Depending on one’s classification, specific rules regarding
permissible conduct follow. Designation as a combatant brings with it immunity
from the operation of certain domestic laws, provided the combatant obeys the
international laws of armed conflict. Combatants may target other combatants,
and be targeted themselves. Conversely, civilians are not to be made the subject
of attack, nor may they take direct part in hostilities. This is known as
‘distinction’—the principle that attempts to keep civilians
safe from the effects of the conflict, and provides instruction to combatants
regarding permissible targeting practices. The use of PMSCs complicates the
application of the principle of distinction are they civilians, combatants or
mercenaries? Can they be targeted, and can they target other legitimate objects
and objectives themselves? Are there laws that deal with PMSCs or do they exist
in some legal grey-zone, leaving lawmakers and commentators scrambling to bring
the law in line with reality? This paper will look at the issue of private
military and security contractors under the law of armed conflict, and will look
at recent attempts to better deal with PMSCs, assessing whether such recent
attempts are adequate, inadequate or indeed necessary at all.
The
Fog of War Reform: Change and Structure in the Law of Armed Conflict after
September 11 by Peter Margulies, Roger Williams University School of Law,
Roger Williams Univ. Legal Studies Paper No. 110
Abstract: Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, the law of
armed conflict (LOAC) has been locked in a bitter conflict between utilitarians,
who generally defer to state power, and protective theorists, who seek to shield
civilians by curbing official discretion. Consider Salim Hamdans conviction in
a military commission for material support of Al Qaeda, recently upheld by the
Court of Military Commission Review. Utilitarians view military commissions as
efficient means for trying suspected terrorists. Protective theorists, in
contrast, criticize the amorphous nature of material support charges.
The clash between utilitarians and protective theorists colors other issues,
including enhanced interrogation and limits on targeting. Protective theorists
merit praise for their scrutiny of interrogation, while utilitarians have
trivialized interrogation abuses. However, protective theorists scrutiny of
states is burdened by hindsight bias. Failing to recognize the challenges faced
by states, protective theorists have ignored the risk to civilians posed by
violent non-state actors such as terrorist networks. Because of this blind spot,
protective theorists have embraced changes such as the ICRCs Guidance on Direct
Participation in Hostilities that exacerbate LOACs asymmetries, creating a
revolving door that shields terrorist bomb makers while permitting continuous
targeting of state forces.
To move beyond the
utilitarian/protective debate, this piece advances a structural approach
informed by two values: a linear time horizon and holistic signaling. Drawing on
cognitive studies of humans flawed temporal judgment and the Framers work on
institutional design, a linear time horizon curbs both myopia that infects
officials and hindsight bias that plagues the protective model. Holistic
signaling requires the United States to support the law of armed conflict, even
when adversaries such as Al Qaeda reject that framework. Applying the structural
test, a state can use a sliding scale of imminence and necessity to justify
targeting Al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists in states unwilling or unable to
apprehend those operatives. However, the material support charges against Hamdan
signal a troubling turn to victors justice that will ultimately harm
counterterrorism efforts. Stressing a linear time horizon and holistic signaling
defuses rhetoric and sharpens deliberation about post-9/11 LOAC changes.
Incentive
Contracting by Ralph C. Nash George Washington University - Law School,
Government Contracts Monograph No. 7, 1963, GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No.
587, GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 587
Abstract:
As Vern Edwards’ Foreward explains: The Department of Defense recently
directed the military services to use Fixed-Price Incentive (Firm Target) FPI(F)
contracts instead of cost-reimbursement contracts when it makes sense to do so,
and we can expect a surge in their use in the near future. The FPI(F) contract
is the most complex of all of the standard pricing arrangements described in FAR
Part 16, “Types of Contracts,” and the people who will have to
negotiate and administer them are going to need all of the guidance that they
can get. Professor Nashs valuable monograph went out of print long ago, but it
is now being republished in its original form and made freely available online.
Except for a few references to old regulations, the monograph is just as useful
today as it was in 1963. The most useful parts are Chapters I through V. The
material contained in those chapters is practical guidance about how to think
about, negotiate, and administer all three of the formula-type incentive
arrangements.
Contract incentives have an intuitive appeal, and
enthusiasm for them has been fed by countless undocumented claims of success,
including some tall tales and phony “success stories.” Interest, if
not enthusiasm, is on the rise again. That being the case, Professor
Nash’s treatise is a good starting place for those without much experience
in this intriguing, if troublesome and dubious, approach to contract pricing.
The Foreign
Corrupt Practices Act & Government Contractors: Compliance Trends & Collateral
Consequences, Jessica Tillipman, The George Washington University Law
School, Briefing Papers, No. 11-9, August 2011, GWU Legal Studies Research Paper
No. 586, GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 586
Abstract:
As Government contractors expand their business overseas, they expose
themselves to the risk of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and
the high sanctions that accompany those violations. Given the nature of a
Government contractors business, they are naturally at greater risk of
violating the FCPA than those companies that do not interact with Government
officials on a regular basis. Indeed, the top 10 most expensive settlements in
FCPA history include eight large U.S. government contractors. For contractors
that do business with the Federal Government, these record-shattering FCPA fines
are levied in the shadow of the U.S. Government’s purchasing power. For
example, the companies that settled the three most expensive FCPA enforcement
actions to date, and together paid approximately $1.8 billion in fines (Siemens
AG, $800 million; Halliburton/KBR, $579 million; BAE Systems, $400 million),
also obtained over $10 billion dollars in U.S. Government contracts in FY 2010.
This article begins by providing an overview of the FCPA and a review of
recent FCPA enforcement trends, and then considers the collateral consequences
of a violation of the FCPA by Government contractors. In addition to fines,
penalties, and possible incarceration, Government contractors have additional
concerns, including the risk of suspension or debarment from the U.S.
procurement regime. Exclusion from contracting with foreign governments and
international organizations, including the World Bank and EU member states, is
also an increasing risk. This article is an essential primer for any Government
contractor that may be exposed to FCPA liability and seeks to avoid or limit the
potential collateral consequences.
Foreign
Corrupt Practices Act Fundamentals, by Jessica Tillipman, The George
Washington University Law School, Briefing Papers, No. 08-10, September 2008,
GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 585 GWU Law School Public Law Research
Paper No. 585
Abstract: Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)
enforcement activity is currently at its highest level since enactment of the
statute in 1977. There were more enforcement actions brought in 2007 than in the
years from 2004 to 2006 combined. The message is clearthe U.S. Government is
committed to FCPA compliance and there is no evidence enforcement activity will
slow any time soon. This article provides a general overview of the FCPA,
including a primer on the legislations core components: the antibribery
prohibitions and the books and records provisions. The article also provides
practical guidance with respect to the more challenging provisions of the Act,
including the two affirmative defenses and the legislation’s exception for
“grease” or “facilitating” payments. The article also
examines recent trends in FCPA enforcement, such as the increased prosecution of
foreign companies and voluntary disclosures by corporate entities. This broad
and practical overview of the FCPA is an excellent resource for anyone
interested in learning more about this robust anticorruption regime.
Third-Party
Opportunism and the Theory of Public Contracts: Operationalization and
Applications, by Pablo T. Spiller, University of California, Berkeley -
Business & Public Policy Group and Marian Moszoro-IESE Business School;
University of California, Berkeley - Haas School of Business, July 24, 2011
Abstract: Public contracts seem to be “expensive” and
“inefficient” compared to pure private contracts. Higher prices and
inefficiencies in the implementation of public contracts result from their
specificity and rigidity, which is how public agents limit hazards from
third-party opportunism. We present a comprehensible and testable theory of
third-party opportunism and its effects on public contracts. We show that, in
the presence of third-party opportunism, there exists an equilibrium in which
public contracts are specific and rigid, and thus more expensive in their
design, implementation, and control than the theoretical first-best in a
non-opportunistic world. We use case examples to extend the theory into
practical settings and derive empirical implications.
POSTSCRIPT: TERMINATION FOR CONVENIENCE OF FAR PART 12 COMMERCIAL ITEM CONTRACTS by Ralph C. Nash and Paul J. Seidman, 25 NO. 8 Nash & Cibinic Rep. ¶ 37, August 2011, Posted with permission of Thomson Reuters
White Paper-The Consequences of the Debt Ceiling Impasse for Government Contractors, Centre Consulting, July 27, 2011. Centre Consulting is holding an audio seminar on July 28, 2011 at 12 on this issue. It is free for current clients and only $25 for others. Current clients, call or e-mail (nsnyder@centreconsult.com) to register. Others can register by going here: http://va.eftsecure.net/eftcart/additem.asp?M_id=503340174233&P_id= 160529
Organizational Conflicts
of Interest Program at Sandia National Laboratories, U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Inspector General Office of Audits and Inspections, July 13,
2011.
RESULTS OF INSPECTION:
Our inspection revealed a number of areas where Sandia could improve its
OCI process to prevent potential or actual organizational conflicts of interest.
Although specifically required by Federal Regulation and contractual provisions,
Sandia had not completed a number of OCI- related activities. In particular,
Sandia had not:
•Conducted OCI reviews of all Technology Transfer License Agreements
(License Agreements) between Sandia and its parent, Lockheed Martin, nor had it
provided all License Agreements to NNSA for review and approval prior to the
release of technology to Lockheed Martin;
•Ensured that OCI reviews were completed on Work for Others (WFO)
projects that were initiated between Sandia and Lockheed prior to sending them
to NNSA for review and approval;
•Performed adequate reviews on Cooperative Research and Development
Agreements (CRADAs) with Lockheed to identify actual or potential OCI issues;
and
•Notified NNSA or completed OCI reviews when subcontracts were
initiated with Lockheed Martin, when Lockheed acquired Sandia subcontractors, or
when the period of performance and dollar amount of a sole-source contract with
Lockheed materially exceeded the original award.
The Costs of War, Eisenhower Study Group
Eisenhower Research Project, June 2011
Background on the Project-
A comprehensive accounting of the costs of war must add them all up the human,
economic, social, political, and the lost opportunities in the U.S. and abroad.
The Eisenhower Research Project at Brown University's Watson Institute for
International Studies was founded with the mission to do research on the issues
of war and the costs of war. The Eisenhower Study Group, experts on aspects of
the current wars economists, anthropologists, political scientists, lawyers,
historians, and humanitarian field personnel was assembled by the project
directors, Neta Crawford of Boston University and Catherine Lutz of Brown
University. The economist Anita Dancs of Western New England College helped put
the economic team together, working to coordinate their efforts. Andrea
Mazzarino worked as project coordinator.
The Myth of
Efficient Breach: New Defenses of the Expectation Interest, Daniel
Markovits, Yale Law School, Alan Schwartz, Yale Law School, Virginia Law Review,
Forthcoming, Yale Law & Economics Research Paper No. 431
Abstract:
We defend contract laws preference to protect the expectation with a
liability rule against prominent doctrinal and moral critics who argue that a
promisee should have a right to specific performance or to a restitutionary
remedy. These critics argue that liability rule protection limited to
contractual expectations unjustifiably favors promisors, by allowing a promisor
to capture the entire gain from unilaterally exiting a contract as long as she
compensates her promisee for the profit he would have realized had he received
the goods or services the contract described. The critics prefer to vindicate
contractual expectations with a property rule or restitution.
We show that a promisees gross payoff under the
typical contract is invariant to the remedy the law accords him. Current
defenders and critics focus on gross payoffs. In this analytic universe, no
remedy can be shown to be superior to any other remedy. We argue below that the
promisees net payoff, for transaction cost reasons, is higher under a contract
that protects his expectation with a liability rule. This claim supports the
dual performance hypothesis, which holds that promisees typically give their
promisors discretion either to trade the goods or services at issue or to make a
transfer to the promisee in lieu of trade. A promisor who transfers rather than
trades therefore does not breach; rather, she breaches only when she rejects
both trade and transfer. On this view of the law, a promisees suit to recover
his expectation is a specific performance action to enforce the contracts
transfer term. We further explain that this approach renders contract law
coherent; it is consistent with the laws immanent normativity; and it is
consistent also with the morality of promising.
Legislative History Research:
A Basic Guide, Julia Taylor Section Head - ALD Section and Information
Research Specialist, Congressional Research Service, June 15, 2011.
Summary: This report provides an overview of federal legislative
history research, the legislative process, and where to find congressional
documents. The report also summarizes some of the reasons researchers are
interested in legislative history, briefly describes the actions a piece of
legislation might undergo during the legislative process, and provides a list of
easily accessible print and electronic resources. This report will be updated as
needed.
Department of Defense Trends
in Overseas Contract Obligations, Moshe Schwartz Specialist in Defense
Acquisition, Joyprada Swain Research Associate May 16, 2011.
Summary The Department of Defense (DOD) has long relied on
contractors to support military operations. Contractors provide the U.S.
military with weapons, food, uniforms, and logistic services, and without
contractor support, the U.S. would currently be unable to arm and field an
effective fighting force. DOD spends more on federal contracts than all other
federal agencies combined.
Understanding the costs associated with
contractor support of overseas military operations could provide Congress more
data upon which to weigh the relative costs and benefits of different military
operations, including contingency operations and maintaining bases around the
world.
The federal government tracks contract obligations through the
Federal Procurement Data System-Next Generation. Obligations occur when agencies
enter into contracts, employ personnel, or otherwise legally commit to spending
money. Outlays occur when obligations are liquidated. This report examines (1)
DODs overseas contract obligations in the larger context of U.S. government and
DOD contract spending, and (2) how those contract obligations are used to
support DOD operations in different regions.
Identity and
Ownership in Government Contracting, Melissa Thomas Johns Hopkins University
- Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), May 15, 2011,
Abstract: As the volume of government contracting increases, so
does the importance of monitoring government contractors to guard against market
concentration, rent seeking and conflict of interest. Doing so, however, is
impossible without knowing the identity and organizational structure of
contractors. At present the government does not collect information on
organizational structure. Using STATA to analyze data from a new government
database, this paper takes a first look at contractor organizational structure.
The complexity of the structures makes clear that better data are needed if the
government and the public are to be able to hold contractors accountable.
The Revenue
Impact of the 2% Excise Tax: The Congressional Budget Office Estimates Relating
to the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act by Nicole R. Best,
Abstract: This paper examines the revenue effect of the Excise Tax
imposed on foreign contractors by the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation
Act of 2010. Sponsors of the Act suggested that placing a 2 percent tax on
payments made to certain foreign contractors would not only pay for the fund to
support World Trade Center victims, but would net $450 million in extra revenue.
However, many doubt the revenue raising capabilities of the tax. Hypothesizing
that the predictions were based on a FY 2009 Buy American Report submitted to
Congress by the United State Department of Defense, this paper identifies the
assumptions of the predictive model used to predict expected revenues of the 2
percent tax. This paper examines how these predictions are changed by altering
the assumptions of the model to better reflect a more realistic implementation
of the tax. Altering these assumptions reveals a serious decrease of the
revenue effect of the tax. The CBO Report presented in conjunction with the
excise tax language predicted $305 million in revenue for FY 2011 alone.
However, adjusting the model reveals expected revenue to be closer to $122
million, only 40% of the original prediction.
A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF
OFFSETS IN INTERNATIONAL DEFENSE PROCUREMENTS: POLICY OPTIONS FOR THE UNITED
STATES Mark J. Nackman, Public Contract Law Journal Vol. 40, No. 2
Winter 2011
Abstract: The article is concerned with defense trade
offsets and how they threaten U.S. national security by undermining the U.S.
defense industrial base. The article proceeds from an overview of definitions
and transitions into a brief discussion of the wide range of practices in the
international defense procurement market.
The article asserts that the
negative U.S. national security impact from offsets is most severe when major
U.S. prime defense contractors replace existing U.S. subcontractors with foreign
ones on fully developed, heritage U.S. major defense programs as they are
brought to the international market. Given the Obama administrations focus on
exports as an engine for U.S. job creation and the push to revamp the U.S.
export controls regime, the article also emphasizes the merit of additional
focused attention on defense trade offsets for U.S. employment and export
policy.
The article analyzes the problem of conflicting U.S. policies
regarding defense trade offsets. It then recommends two initial steps that
should be taken before the U.S. can formulate more substantive policy
adjustments, with additional discussion of options for substantive follow-on
policies.
The Article was selected as the Division II second-place winner
of the American Bar Association Section of Public Contract Law 2010 Writing
Competition. (Posted with the permission of the author)
The Draft OCI
RuleNew Directions and the History of Fear, Christopher R. Yukins, George
Washington University - Law School, The Government Contractor Vol. 53, No. 18
May 4, 2011 GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 557, GWU, Law School Public Law
Research Paper No. 557
Abstract: After years of rancor and
debate, the Office of Federal Procurement Policy and the FAR Councils in April
2011 finally issued a proposed revision to the regulations governing
organizational conflict of interests (OCIs) in federal procurement. The proposed
rule marked an extraordinary change of directionin some ways, it would reorder
policy priorities built up over years of case law -- but also may have reflected
the drafters nagging ambivalence about the new direction. The proposed OCI rule
marked a significant change in direction in part because policymakers core
concerns their core fears concerning conflicts of interest have themselves
shifted over time. Because new means of addressing those concerns are constantly
emerging and evolving, we know that the rules will continue to evolve. The
article argues, however, that as the OCI rules advance, they should be meshed
more seamlessly with other advances in procurement law, such as new initiatives
in contractor compliance and efforts abroad, for example through the European
procurement directives and the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA), to
regulate conflicts of interest in procurement.
Dead Contractors: The Un-Examined Effect of Surrogates on the
Public’s Casualty Sensitivity Steven L. Schooner, George Washington
University - Law School, Collin D. Swan, George Washington University - Law
School, Journal of National Security Law & Policy, 2011 GWU Law School Public
Law Research Paper No. 555, GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 555,
Abstract: Once the nation commits to engage in heavy, sustained
military action abroad, particularly including the deployment of ground forces,
political support is scrupulously observed and dissected. One of the most
graphic factors influencing that support is the number of military soldiers who
have made the ultimate sacrifice on the nations behalf. In the modern era, most
studies suggest that the public considers the potential and actual casualties in
U.S. wars to be an important factor, and an inverse relationship exists between
the number of military deaths and public support. Economists have dubbed this
the “casualty sensitivity” effect.
This article asserts that
this stark and monolithic metric requires re-examination in light of a
little-known phenomenon: on the modern battlefield, contractor personnel are
dying at rates similar to—and at times in excess of—soldiers. The
increased risk to contractors health and well-being logically follows the
expanded role of contractors in modern governance and defense. For the most
part, this “substitution” has taken place outside of the cognizance
of the public and, potentially, Congress. This article explains the phenomenon,
identifies some of the challenges and complexities associated with quantifying
and qualifying the real price of combat in a modern outsourced military, and
encourages greater transparency so that the public can more meaningfully
participate in “the great American experiment.”
The Boards of
Contract Appeals: A Historical Perspective, Jeri Kaylene Somers, George
Washington University - Law School; U.S. Civilian Board of Contract Appeals,
American University Law Review, Vol. 60, No. 745, 2011, GWU Legal Studies
Research Paper No. 550, GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 550
Abstract: This article - introducing the journal's special issue
discussing the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit - traces the
historical evolution of the agency boards of contract appeals to meet the
changing dispute resolution needs of the Government in its procurement
activities. It discusses the boards of contract appeals and their relationship
to the Federal Circuit, focusing more on the factual background rather than the
theoretical.
FCPA
Sanctions: Too Big to Debar?, Drury D. Stevenson, South Texas College of
Law, Nicholas J. Wagoner, South Texas College of Law, April 15, 2011
Abstract: The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) criminalizes
bribery of foreign government officials; the frequency of enforcement actions
and severity of fines levied against corporations under the FCPA have
significantly increased in the last few years. There is an ongoing problem,
however, with the sanctions for FCPA violations: enforcement authorities (DOJ
and SEC) and contracting officials have limited themselves to fines, civil
penalties, and occasional imprisonment of individual violators. Debarment from
future federal government contracts, even temporarily, is an unused sanction for
FCPA violations, even though Congress provided for this punishment by statute.
Debarment offers a far more potent deterrent than fines and penalties, as
multinational contractors that conduct business with the U.S. are much less
likely to view the sanction as merely a cost of doing business. If ridding
foreign markets of corruption truly is a top priority of the U.S., it seems both
unfair and imprudent for federal agencies to continue awarding lucrative,
multibillion-dollar contracts to firms recently prosecuted for fraudulently
obtaining such contracts overseas.
Enforcement officials shy away
from debarring entities that violate the FCPA due to the short-term
inconvenience of an agency’s inability to transact business with its
favorite contractor, its inability to demand favorable bids from contractors
when the field of potential bidders has thinned, the resulting job loss, and the
risk of overdeterring companies that might otherwise pursue lucrative
opportunities in emerging markets. This is the “too big to debar”
problem the federal government is too dependent on a particular set of large,
private-sector corporations for equipment and services. In addition to the
virtual immunity from debarment enjoyed by these firms when they violate the
FCPA, the fines imposed for engaging in foreign corrupt practices comprise a
tiny fraction of the potential revenue generated by lucrative contracts with the
U.S. and foreign states. When discounted by the low probability of detection,
these sanctions are far too low to deter unlawful activity.
Debarment would deter potential wrongdoers and incapacitate actual offenders.
The deterrent would induce more firms to comply with the law, which would allow
the “too big to debar” problem to diminish over time. To help
illuminate these concerns and lend support to the thesis, this Article will
examine the third largest FCPA-related enforcement action to date: the BAE
Systems case. On March 1, 2010, BAE Systems paid approximately $400 million in
fines for its corrupt practices abroad. In the 365 days that followed however,
the federal government awarded BAE contracts in excess of $58 billion dollars.
The U.S.’s refusal to debar BAE because of the potential “collateral
consequences” provides a case study on the benefits and drawbacks of
deterring foreign corruption through suspension and debarment. This Article
concludes that the U.S. must begin to diversify its portfolio of federal
contractors so that prosecutors may leverage the legitimate threat of suspension
and debarment to more effectively deter foreign corruption.
A Random Walk:
The Federal Circuit’s 2010 Government Contracts Decisions. Steven L.
Schooner, George Washington University - Law School, American University Law
Review, Vol. 60, No. 1067, 2011 GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 549 GWU Law
School Public Law Research Paper No. 549
Abstract: This Article
discusses the Federal Circuit's 2010 government contracts cases. It begins with
some perspective on, and empirical quantification of, the Federal
Circuit’s level of specialization and evolving jurisprudence in the field
of government contracts. It eventually turns to analysis of a hodge-podge of
unrelated cases: three award controversies (or bid protests), a handful of post
award performance disputes, a few selections from the ongoing behemoths of
litigation in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims - Winstar and Spent Nuclear Fuel,
and a potentially analogous implied warranty case. Overall, the article suggests
that the Federal Circuit's 2010 government contracts cases appear to lack
significant volume, thematic coherence, or dramatic impact. It also reinforces
the perception that the court does not, and does not desire to, embrace the
unique nature of the federal government contract regime as an analytical premise
or predicate. Rather, the court increasingly appears to prefer a more
consistent, streamlined, simplified, or even formalistic approach to its highly
varied docket.
Outsourcing
Criminal Prosecution?: The Limits of Criminal Justice Privatization, Roger
Fairfax, George Washington University - Law School. University of Chicago Legal
Forum, Vol. 2010, No. 265, 2010, GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 541, GWU
Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 541
Abstract: In an era
of scarce public resources, many jurisdictions are being forced to take drastic
measures to address severe budgetary constraints on the administration of
criminal justice. As prosecutors offices around the nation are being scaled
back and enforcement priorities are being narrowed, one conceivable response is
the outsourcing of the criminal prosecution function to private lawyers. Indeed,
prosecution outsourcing currently is utilized in surprising measure by
jurisdictions in the United States. This Article, prepared for the University of
Chicago Legal Forum Symposium on Crime, Criminal Law, and the Recession, argues
that the outsourcing trend in criminal justice seen most prominently in the
area of private prisons and policing should not extend to criminal prosecution
because such outsourcing is in tension with the constitutional and positive law
norms regulating the public-private distinction. Furthermore, concerns about
ethics, fairness, transparency, accountability, performance, and the important
values advanced by the public prosecution norm all militate against the
outsourcing of the criminal prosecution function to private lawyers.
Contract is
Not Promise; Contract is Consent, Randy E. Barnett, Georgetown University
Law Center, Suffolk University Law Review, Forthcoming, Georgetown Public Law
Research Paper No. 11-29
Abstract: In the 1980s, Charles Fried
was right to focus on what was missing from both the “death of
contract” and “law and economics” approaches to contract law:
the internal morality of contract. But he focused on the wrong morality. Rather
than embodying the morality of promise-keeping, the enforcement of contracts can
best be explained and justified as a product of the parties consent to be
legally bound. In this essay, I observe that, in Contract as Promise, Fried
himself admits that the “promise principle” cannot explain or
justify two features that are at the core of contract law: the objective theory
of assent and the content of most “gap fillers” or default rules of
contract law. After summarizing how consent to contract accounts for both, I
explain that, whereas the morality of promise-keeping is best considered within
the realm of ethics or private morality legally enforcing the consent of the
parties is a requirement of justice or public morality.
PCL State and Local Procurement Law News, Vol 1, Issue 1, March 2011
The
Possibilities and Limitations of Privatization Edward L. Rubin Vanderbilt
Law School, Harvard Law Review, Vol. 123, No. 890, 2010 Vanderbilt Public Law
Research Paper No. 11-09, Vanderbilt Law and Economics Research Paper No. 11-14
Abstract: This is a review of Jody Freeman & Martha Minow, eds.,
Government By Contract: Outsourcing and American Democracy (Harvard Univ.,
2009). After summarizing and analyzing the individual contributions to the
volume, and delineating their disagreements, the review proceeds to identify
areas of common ground among them: that policy should continue to be set by
government authorities, that privatization is presumptively superior when the
policy goal is efficiency, and that the presumptive efficiency of privatization
depends on the existence of a competitive market for the goods or services being
privatized. It suggests that the absence of genuine competition in many areas of
government contracting cast grave doubts on the effectiveness of privatization,
particularly as it was championed (although not implemented) by the second Bush
Administration. The review then goes on to explore other reasons for
privatization beyond efficiency, such as the possibility that private firms
could be guided by, or even aid in articulating, public values. It concludes by
arguing that the subject is too complex for any sweeping generalizations, and
proposes that decisions in this area should be based on a micro-analysis of the
government function involved.
SMALL BUSINESS CONTRACTING IN THE UNITED STATES AND EUROPE: A COMPARATIVE ASSESSMENT by Max V. Kidalov, Public Contract Law Journal, Vol. 40, No. 2, Winter 2011. This material from Public Contract Law Journal of the American Bar Association has been reproduced with the permission of the author and the publisher, the American Bar Association. Further use without the permission of the publisher is prohibited.
A
Versatile Prism: Assessing Procurement Law Through the Principal-Agent
Model, Christopher R. Yukins, George Washington University - Law School,
Public Contract Law Journal, Vol. 40, No. 1, p. 63, Fall 2010, GWU Legal Studies
Research Paper No. 533, GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 533
Abstract: Over the past several decades, the federal procurement
system in the United States has grown remarkably, and now totals over $500
billion annually.
Over that same period, the rules governing federal
procurement have been buffeted by broad efforts at reform. At no point, however,
have we ever had an overarching theory - a model or prism - through which to
assess the procurement system or its reform. Agency theory provides one such
theoretical model. Long established in economics and the other social sciences,
the principal-agent model (agency theory) provides a model to explain successes
(and failures) in organizational structures, and also to understand the
procurement system and its rules. The theory builds upon the classic
principal-agent model. A principal enlists an agent to carry out the principals
goals, presumably because the agent enjoys some comparative advantage in
performing the goals. Inevitably, however, the agents interests diverge from
the principals; if the agents goals diverge sufficiently, the agent may be
said to have a conflict of interest . This article employs agency theory to
assess classic constructs of procurement law, such as Steven Schooner's
desiderata, and argues that the theory can be used to solve future puzzles in
procurement policy, and to predict where procurement policies are likely to fail
- and to succeed.
Barriers to
International Trade in Procurement after the Economic Crisis, Part II: Opening
International Procurement Markets: Unfinished Business , Christopher R.
Yukins , George Washington University - Law School, GWU Legal Studies Research,
Paper No. 530, GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 530, West Government
Contracts Year in Review Conference (Covering 2010)
Abstract:
This paper, presented at the West Government Contracts Year in Review Conference
(covering 2010), discusses developing issues in international public
procurement. Among other things, the paper suggests that, in 2010, the
international procurement market continued to mature, as cross-border barriers
to trade continue to fall. Large developing nations - including China and,
potentially, India - moved to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) Government
Procurement Agreement (GPA), the leading instrument for opening procurement
markets. In the United States, while open issues remained regarding how to
ensure that the United States meets its own free-trade obligations in
procurement, the United States and Canada were able to reach a compromise on
U.S. - Canadian procurement purchasing that may open the way for future
agreement. That thaw in international procurement markets was in contrast,
though, to a new U.S. tax on foreign contractors selling to the U.S. government
who fall outside the protection of the GPA and other agreements. More broadly,
there was a growing international trend in favor of unified defense-civilian
procurement, bolstered by a recent European directive on defense procurement.
Freer trade in defense procurement may, however, be affected by efforts to
ensure security of supply (including efforts in Europe and the United States) -
an area where comparison between the two systems may be useful, as the debate
over protecting “critical materials” in the U.S. system is rapidly
advancing.
Emerging
Policy and Practice Issues (2010), Steven L. Schooner, George Washington
University - Law School, David J. Berteau, Center for Strategic and
International Studies, Defense - Industrial Initiatives Group, WEST GOVERNMENT
CONTRACTS YEAR IN REVIEW CONFERENCE COVERING 2010 CONFERENCE BRIEFS, Thomas
Reuters, 2011, GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 529, GWU Law School Public
Law Research Paper No. 529
Abstract: This paper, presented at the
West Government Contracts Year in Review Conference (covering 2010), attempts to
identify the key trends and issues for 2011 in U.S. federal procurement. The
paper, among other things, focuses on the intense activity that emanated from
the Defense Department, primarily through USD(AT&L) Ashton Carters Efficiency
and Productivity Initiative; summarizes empirical evidence that the federal
procurement spending growth cycle finally has run its course; offers a window
into the concentration of spending amongst the largest contracting agencies and
government contractors; points out that, despite all of the attention focused
upon government contracting, over the last decade grant spending outpaced
procurement spending by more than sixteen percent; expresses concern that
agencies have their work cut out for them in their continuing efforts to fund
additional acquisition billets and investing in training and professional
development in an era of pay freezes and pressure to reduce government spending;
discusses how the government has grown into its permanent and growing reliance
on contracts for a wide range of professional and support services; expresses
dismay that, for political purposes, the public is not exposed to an objective,
even-handed assessment of the roles contractors play and the extent of their
contribution to the governments myriad missions; and highlights the
Professional Services Council Acquisition Policy Survey, The Great Divide, which
chronicled the marked difference in perceptions between operational acquisition
professionals the people who actually purchase the goods and services
necessary for the government to perform its missions and those whose role is
primarily oversight (e.g., legislative staff, GAO, etc.) of the people and firms
that do the work.
Centre White Paper-Implications and Consequences of a Government Shutdown. Centre Consulting is offering an audio seminar on this topic on March 01, 2011 from 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. If interested in attending e-mail Nicole Snyder (nsnyder@centreconsult.com) or call her at 703-288-2800 x233
The Regulatory
Impact of Using Public Procurement to Promote Better Labour in Corporate Supply
Chains by John Howe University of Melbourne Law School,
Abstract: This chapter examines the potential of government
procurement as a mechanism for improving job quality and alleviating poverty and
proposes ways in which these mechanisms can be strengthened so as to make them
more effective. The promotion of higher labour standards through government
procurement is a soft law mechanism that may appeal to governments at a time
when economic globalization has, among other things, reduced the political
willingness and ability of governments to safeguard the welfare of workers and
communities through the maintenance of conventional labour law systems. In many
developed economies, governments have reduced their traditional legal protection
of labour rights and standards. Many developing countries maintain strong labour
laws on paper but lack resources, adequate institutional frameworks and, at
times, the will to properly enforce labour standards. This chapter assumes,
however, that governments have a crucial role to play in promoting and enforcing
labour standards. The difficulties of enforcement and the high disincentives to
compliance with labour laws for businesses mean that governments must find
innovative ways to create inducements for more widespread compliance with labour
standards. It is the contention of this chapter that promotion of existing
labour standards or higher than existing legal standards through government
procurement may be effective because it is responsive to existing power and
resource distribution among economic and social actors (Ayres and Braithwaite,
1992; Teubner, 1983).
Implied
Certification Under the False Claims Act, Gregory Klass, University Law
Center, Michael Holt , Georgetown University Law Center, Georgetown Law and
Economics Research Paper No. 11-03, February 1011.
Abstract: The
False Claims Act prohibits fraud by government contractors, including a
contractor's false certification of compliance with the contract, statutes or
regulations. In the early 1990s, some courts began holding that the mere act of
requesting payment from the government implicitly represents such compliance,
exposing breaching contractors to the FCAs penalty regime. Circuits are today
split on the implied certification doctrine. This Article provides a theory of
the FCA in general, and implied certification in particular, that explains the
value of extracompensatory remedies in this area of contract law. There good
reasons for the implied certification rule. It is an information-forcing
majoritarian default. It tracks the special ethical obligations of government
contractors. And it addresses agency lassitude in drafting and monitoring. But
implied certification also has its costs. Most importantly, it lowers the bar to
frivolous qui tam actions and threatens to impose FCA liability for violations
better addressed by more discretionary and nuanced regulatory tools. This
Article recommends rule for implied certification that both addresses these
considerations and rationalizes case outcomes. It also argues that, by paying
attention to the FCA when drafting contracts, agencies can approximate
first-best results by requiring express certification of compliance with those
duties for which FCA liability makes sense, and contracting-out of implied
certification for those duties that are better enforced in other ways. In
addition to these practical suggestions, the Article draws some general lessons
about contractual duties to cooperate, interpretive defaults in contract and
tort, and the special ethical obligations of government contractors.
What is the United States Code and what is in it?, Vern Edwards Blog, August 18, 2010. Current projects of titles to be codified as positive law.
The Defense
Authorization Act for Fy 2011—A Bounded Step Forward For Acquisition
Reform by Christopher R. Yukins, Kristen Ittig, George Washington University
- Law School, GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 521, GWU Legal
Studies Research Paper No. 521
Abstract: Congress has
traditionally passed a defense authorization act every year. Title VIII of the
annual bill typically includes a number of important procurement reform
measures—indeed, in any given year, Title VIII is often the single most
important legislative vehicle for procurement reform. This year, however, the
defense authorization bill was stalled for months, in large part because of
controversy over the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t
Tell” policy concerning homosexuality in the armed services. Once that
controversy was resolved, through separate legislation, House and Senate leaders
moved the defense authorization legislation through Congress quickly, in the
last days of the 111th Congress. This article reviews the key elements of Title
VIII of the defense authorization act for FY2011, with a special focus on those
provisions likely of most interest to the procurement law community. [See Act]
No More Nisour
Squares: Legal Control of Private Security Contractors in Iraq and After
Charles Tiefer, 88 Or. L. Rev. 745.
Author’s comment This
Article analyzes and builds upon the somewhat successful steps taken by the
Department of Defense and the Department of State in 20082009 to manage the
problem. Analyzing those steps shows a key strand consisting of what may be
called the “contract law” approach. In the much-expanded form
proposed in this Article, the “contract law” approach would use
government contract requirements, contracting tools and sanctions,
contract-related claims, and distinctive contract-related suits to both control
and remedy private security abuses and injuries. This Article continues my prior
studies as a professor of government contracting law with a specific interest in
the Iraq war.
Suing the
Government as a ‘Joint Employer’—Evolving Pathologies of the
Blended Workforce, by Steven L. Schooner, George Washington University - Law
School, Collin D. Swan, George Washington University - Law School, Government
Contractor, Vol 52, No. 39, ¶ 341, October 2010, GWU Legal Studies Research
Paper No. 517, GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 517
Abstract: As the ‘blended workforce’ - a realm in which
contractors work alongside, and often are indistinguishable from, their
Government counterparts - becomes more commonplace, the distinction between
civil servants, members of the military and contractor employees increasingly
blurs. One intriguing (and, apparently, accelerating), yet little-known trend is
that contractor employees are more frequently suing the Government, alleging
employment discrimination on the part of Government managers, supervisors or
even coworkers. This short piece discusses the evolving ‘joint
employer’ liability doctrine. It suggests that The federal courts’
and the EEOC’s willingness to define federal agencies as de facto
employers of contractor employees is further evidence that the prohibition on
personal service contracts is—or should now be deemed—a dead letter.
Ultimately, it concludes that both the Government and its contractors need to
understand that, as federal agencies continue to rely on contractors for their
staffing needs, the ability to distinguish between civil servants and
contractors—in the eyes of the law—will become increasingly more
difficult.
Privatising
Sovereign Performance: Regulating in the Gap between Security and Rights?
by Fiona De Londras, University College Dublin-School of Law, Journal of Law and
Society, Forthcoming
Abstract: The privatisation of the provision
of services has a well-established pedigree at this stage and is normally
justified on the basis of ‘efficiency’ concerns. It also has a
tendency to give rise to serious questions and concerns around human/civil
rights protection and the adequacy or otherwise of ‘state action’
doctrines. While domestic constitutional orders craft different mechanisms to
deal with those difficulties, they are replicated - if not exacerbated - in
states transnational actions, where the privatisation impulse is also in
evidence. In the context of the ‘War on Terrorism’ it is estimated
that there are almost 2,000 private companies contracted by the United States to
engage in different elements of counter-terrorism, intelligence and homeland
security. There are also - we know - a number of corporate entities involved
activities that are clearly and illegal such as targeted killings/assassinations
and extraordinary rendition. This is an example of what I term ‘privatised
sovereign performance’, by which I mean the ‘private’
operationalisation of functions that are intimately connected with the sovereign
identity of the State such as security and entry to or exit from the territory
of the state.
In this paper, which emerges from
ongoing research into Transnational Private Regulation and will appear in final
form in the Journal of Law & Society in 2011, I take the example of corporate
involvement in extraordinary rendition to outline the rights-related
difficulties of such privatisation and explore the extents to which
transnational private regulatory mechanisms have a role to play in crafting a
rights-based response. The thrust of the argument is that (a) the public space
is saturated in rights-based regulation which has, in effect, identified the
imagined transnational private space as an attractive space for states to engage
in unlawful behaviour with a high chance of concealment; (b) the conventional
private regulatory mechanism of litigation faces significant obstacles in
effectiveness as shown by cases such as Mohammend et al v Jeppesen Dataplan; and
(c) transnational private regulation holds potential align structural and legal
obstructions to torture between the public and private sphere, closing off (or
at least making much more difficult to access) the ‘escape hatch’
seemingly presented by the privatisation of sovereign performance.
Contractors
and the Ultimate Sacrifice by Steven L. Schooner George Washington
University - Law School. Collin D. Swan George Washington University - Law
School, Service Contractor, p.16, September 2010., GWU Legal Studies Research
Paper No. 512, GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 5
Abstract: This brief article quantifies how, in Iraq and
Afghanistan, contractor personnel increasingly have made the ultimate sacrifice
alongside, or in lieu of, service members. The enormity of the contractor
sacrifice gives pause - more than 2,000 contractors have been killed in Iraq and
Afghanistan. But what is more striking is that contractors are bearing an
increasing proportion of the annual death toll. In the first half of 2010, more
contractors died in Iraq and Afghanistan supporting the war effort than members
of the U.S. military waging these wars.
Government
Obligations in Public-Private Partnership Contracts by Sandeep Verma
Government of Rajasthan, Journal of Public Procurement, Volume 10 Issue 4,
Winter 2010
Abstract: Traditional models of full and open
competition are generally applied for ordinary public procurement contracts,
whereas special competitive procedures (such as unsolicited proposals) are
permissible under various international and domestic frameworks for
“Public-Private Partnership”(PPP) contracts. In case of the latter
category of contracts, some concerns about relative lack of transparency and
competition in the award process have begun to surface, while they are being
increasingly relied upon for development of public infrastructure and services.
This paper focuses on certain aspects of competition and transparency in the
award of PPP contracts, vis-à-vis normal public procurement contracts. To
facilitate a sharper identification of legal issues, it compares the relevant
regulations and case law in India applicable to unsolicited proposals (UNPs)
with that in the United States and those under available international
frameworks. It concludes with recommendations on identified legal dimensions of
UNPs with reference to government obligations on transparency and competition,
so as to adequately preserve these elements in procurement of PPP infrastructure
projects.
Punishing the
Penitent: Disproportionate Fines in Recent FCPA Enforcements and Suggested
Improvements, July 15, 2010, by Bruce Hinchey an attorney completing an
LL.M. degree in Government Procurement Law at The George Washington University
Law School. He is currently looking for employment in FCPA defense and
government contracts practices. He can be reached at bhinchey@law.gwu.edu, July 15, 2010
Abstract: The Department of Justice has long promised tangible
benefits to companies that voluntarily disclose Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
(FCPA) violations. Justice Department officials have promised that the
enforcement of the FCPA is both fair and consistent. Despite these promises,
critics question the benefits of voluntary disclosure based on the outcome of a
few, isolated cases. In this thesis, forty FCPA cases from 2002 through 2009 are
compiled, comparing the ratio between bribes and fines for companies that do and
do not voluntarily disclose. The results side with the critics and reveal that
there does not appear to be a benefit to voluntary disclosure. The data from
these cases is then used to identify how the FCPA can be honed to encourage
compliance and deter violations in a fairer and more efficient manner. Next,
comparisons are made between the FCPA and other anti-corruption organizations
and entities, with the intent of incorporating refinements to the voluntary
disclosure enforcement process. These comparisons consider not only the legal
framework for preventing bribery but also how those laws are enforced. Finally,
recent FCPA developments are considered along with some suggested actions to
bring more fairness and efficiency to voluntary disclosures under the FCPA.
Integrity
Pacts and Public Procurement Reform in India: From Incremental Steps to a
Rigorous Bid-Protest System, by Sandeep Verma, IAS, Area Development
Commissioner, Indira Gandhi Canal Project, Bikaner, Rajasthan- 334 001, INDIA,
August 9, 2010
Abstract Integrity Pacts (IPs) have been adopted
in a number of countries as an instrument for greater public oversight over
possible corruption in government organisations, with application both in
defence as well as in civilian purchases. In addition to their anti-corruption
objectives, these pacts could also potentially enhance citizen participation in
government contracting activities, while allowing dissatisfied bidders a forum
in which to protest seemingly arbitrary and unfair agency actions. India has
witnessed the introduction of these pacts in its public procurement regulations
right since 2006; and with her joining recently as an observer to the
plurilateral Agreement on Government Procurement, the need for a robust domestic
review procedure for bidder grievances assumes an even greater importance. An
in-depth examination of Integrity Pacts as legal tools for ensuring greater
transparency and competition in the award of government contracts is yet to be
conducted in India; and this paper aims to reduce the gap in academic research
by undertaking a detailed examination of important dimensions of IPs as
implemented in India. After a short analysis, it concludes with suggestions for
strengthening and for transforming the IP mechanism into a tool for effective,
comprehensive and independent oversight of domestic public contract-award
decisions.
From GATS to
APEC: The Impact of Trade Agreements on Legal Services, Laurel S. Terry,
Penn State Dickinson School of Law, Akron Law Review, Vol. 43, p. 875, 2010,
Penn State Legal Studies Research Paper No. 21-2010
Abstract:
This article provides a comprehensive overview of the treatment of legal
services in the United States international trade agreements. Although many
individuals are now familiar with the General Agreement on Trade in Services
(GATS), far fewer realize that legal services are included in at least fifteen
international trade agreements to which the United States is a party. This
article begins by identifying those trade agreements and other developments
including the 2009 Legal Services Initiative of the Asia Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC). The article continues by explaining the structure of the
GATS and comparing its provisions to the provisions found in the NAFTA and in
other international trade agreements. The article includes several tables that
compare the structure and content of the fifteen trade agreements applicable to
legal services. The fourth section of the article reviews legal services-related
implementation efforts, including GATS Track #1 developments related to the Doha
Round negotiations, GATS Track #2 developments regarding the development of
“any necessary disciplines,” implementation efforts for other trade
agreements, and developments that are indirectly related to these trade
agreements. The final section of the article addresses the impact of trade
agreements on U.S. lawyer regulation. It concludes that these trade agreements,
which reflect larger developments in our society, have affected the vocabulary,
landscape and stakeholders involved in U.S. lawyer regulation.
24 N&CR ¶ 37 TERMINATION FOR CONVENIENCE OF FAR PART 12 COMMERCIAL ITEM CONTRACTS: Is Fair Compensation Required?, A special column by Paul J. Seidman, Seidman & Associates, P.C. Washington, D.C.,This material from The Nash & Cibinic Report has been reproduced with the permission of the publisher, Thomson Reuters. Further use without the permission of the publisher is prohibited. For additional information or to subscribe, call 1-800-344-5009 or visit west.thomson. com/fedpub. The Nash & Cibinic Report is now available on Westlaw. Visit http://www.westlaw.com
The Karenina
Principle and the Pathology of Administrative Appeals: A Chiropractic Approach
to Improving DOD Acquisitions by Steven Maser Willamette University -
Atkinson Graduate School of Management, July 15, 2010,
Abstract:
What do appeals of administrative decisions tell us about the processes that
give rise to them? Bid protests of Department of Defense source selections are
illustrative. Rejected bidders can appeal to the Government Accountability
Office. GAO sustains protests few, but costly and growing on grounds of
procedural irregularity. Applying concepts from organizational economics,
conflict management, and dispute systems design, we explore misalignments among
management practices within agencies that can contribute to procedural errors
and, thereby, to appeals. A conflict management audit, including interviews with
participants in the process and analysis of GAO’s bid protest decisions,
identifies sources of conflict in misalignments among strategy, structure, human
resources, policies and procedures, and monitoring. Strategically adjusting the
decisions to contract out, expanding authority and responsibility for risk
management, creating professional development opportunities, revisiting policies
on bundling and duration of contracts, and using performance information to
incentivize the workforce can mitigate bid protests.
Assessing the
World Bank’s Proposed Revision of its Procurement Guidelines, Eli
Whitney Debevoise, affiliation not provided to SSRN, Christopher R. Yukins,
George Washington University - Law School, The Governement Contractor Vol. 52,
No. 21, GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 507, GWU Law School Public Law
Research Paper No. 507,
Abstract: The World Bank Group, which
commits tens of billions of dollars to funding projects in the developing world
every year, is revising its procurement guidelines. The Bank’s procurement
guidelines are intended to ensure that procurements on Bank-financed projects
are carried out efficiently and without corruption. As a practical matter,
because of the billions of dollars in projects supported by the Bank’s
financing, the Bank’s guidelines help shape procurement practices across
the developing world, and their revision marks an important opportunity to
improve procurement practices worldwide. In this article, the authors recommend
changes to the guidelines to improve procurement, and reduce corruption, in
projects funded by the World Bank.
The Second
Largest Force: Private Military Contractors & State Responsibility, Markus
Wagner, University of Miami School of Law, April 12, 2010, University of
Miami Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2010-10
Abstract: The
paper is concerned with private military contractors, their expanding use and
the challenges this poses to a system in which private actors at least so far
have been considered to be acting outside of existing international
accountability structures.
The paper proceeds from a brief historical
overview of the use of non-state military forces to a delineation of what
private military forces are (and what they are not), what distinguishes them
from mercenaries (and what does not). This is followed by an analysis of how
private military forces conduct can be attributed to the states employing them,
thereby contributing to the debate over the advantages and disadvantages of
their proliferating use in recent conflicts.
The article proposes a range
of legal and policy rationales to reassess the arguments that are being advanced
for the use of private military forces in todays conflicts with respect to
their legal status, their political utility and their impact on democratic
accountability mechanisms.
The
Bid-Protest Mechanism: Effectiveness and Fairness in Defense Acquisitions?,
Maser, Willamette University - Atkinson Graduate School of Management, Vladimir
Subbotin, affiliation not provided to SSRN, Fred Thompson, Willamette University
- Atkinson Graduate School of Management, May 10, 2010
Abstract:
We studied bid protests to identify procedural changes that might make them more
effective or mitigate the burdens they impose upon governments suppliers,
public contracting officials, and, ultimately, taxpayers. Participants perceive
the protest process to be essentially fair with errors resulting from
inexperience in the acquisition workforce and from challenges inherent in
contracting for complex products and services. The process is prone to frivolous
protests that arise more from market competition rather than a desire to correct
errors. Analyzing DOD contracts and Government Accountability Office protest
decisions reveals that contracts with more and smaller bidders and with
international winners are more likely to be protested. Protests by large
companies where there have been many bidders on complex projects are more likely
to be sustained. We also found a relationship between the protest decisions and
congressional constituency interests, which interview respondents perceive but
GAO denies: GAO decisions appear to favor domestic producers and a fortiori the
constituents of pertinent congressional leaders in a way that the decisions of
the courts do not. We conjecture that Congress designated the GAO, a
congressionally affiliated agency, to execute the bid-protest process not
because Congress trusted the executive branch or even the courts to avoid
conflicts of interest but because Congress distrusted them to attend to the
right interests.
Private Force/Public Goods, by Scott M.Sullivan,
Connecticut Law Review, Volume 42, Number 3, February 2010.
Description This Article rethinks the benefits and dangers of private
force in war. It shows that privatization must be viewed within the special
requirements and confines of national security policy making and weighed against
available alternatives. Contrary to academic and mainstream conventional wisdom,
this Article concludes that national security privatization comports well with
core constitutional and democratic principles and offers greater transparency
and democratic control than commonly understood. Moreover, this Article argues
that the American use of privatized force reflects and accomplishes normative
and democratic commitments of international and domestic law that would be
impossible to replicate through other policy avenues.
Reconsidering
the Letter of Marque: Utilizing Private Security Providers Against Piracy
,Theodore Richard, Public Contract Law Journal, Vol. 39, No. 3, pp. 411-464,
Spring 2010,
Abstract: This article examines how letters of
marque could be revived to effectively empower the private sector to assist
governments in dealing with modern piracy. It examines Somali piracy, the
development and different uses of letters of marque and privateers, the current
legal framework relating to piracy, Somalias decade-long experience with
maritime security contractors, the use of maritime contractors outside of
Somalia, and addresses concerns involving private maritime security. The article
concludes that unless governments provide security everywhere and all the time,
the market will demand private security. Governments can effectively manage and
control this security in the maritime environment without inventing a new legal
scheme out of whole cloth: letters of marque can provide authorization,
regulation, and accountability.
The
Quasi War CasesAnd Their Relevance to Whether Letters of Marque and Reprisal
Constrain Presidential War Powers,J. Gregory Sidak, Tilburg Law & Economics
Center (TILEC), Tilburg University; Criterion Economics, L.L.C.; The Coase
Foundation for Law & Economics, Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, Vol. 28,
No. 2, pp. 465-500, Spring 2005
Abstract: Constitutional scholars
cite three Supreme Court decisions arising from the undeclared Quasi War with
France in 1798-1800 as support for the proposition that Congress may authorize
war of any magnitude, and that, except in case of sudden or imminent attack on
the United States, this congressional authority displaces any right of the
President to use military force of even modest magnitude without prior
congressional authorization. The textual hook claimed by these scholars for so
reading Bas v. Tingy, Talbot v. Seeman, and Little v. Bareme is the phrase in
Article I, section 8 of the Constitution that immediately follows the grant to
Congress of the power To declare War - namely, the power to grant Letters of
Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water. These
additional words, it is argued, enable Congress to regulate the President's
ability to use military force in a manner short of full-scale war. This
prevailing interpretation of the Quasi War cases is incorrect and has special
significance because the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
Circuit gave it credence in 2000 in the war powers case Campbell v. Clinton and
because one or more of the cases continues to be cited in litigation concerning
the current war on terror.
GAO vs. DCAA-And the Winner Is? —Contractors! by Richard C. Loeb, From the March 2010 Issue of West’s “Costs, Pricing & Accounting Report”Posted on the POGO’s Contract Oversight Related Resources site.
Giving
Unconscionability More Muscle: Attorney’s Fees As a Remedy for Contractual
Overreaching, Stephen E. Friedman Widener University - School of Law,
Georgia Law Review, Vol. 44, No. 2, 2010 Widener Law School Legal Studies
Research Paper No. 10-15
Abstract: This Article seeks to broaden
the conversation about unconscionability. While most of the discussion has
focused on the appropriate standard for determining unconscionability, this
Article focuses on the appropriate remedy to be imposed when unconscionability
is found. The current remedy for unconscionability is non-enforcement or limited
enforcement of unconscionable contracts or contract terms. This remedy is
inadequate and seriously undermines unconscionabilitys effectiveness as a tool
for policing against contractual overreaching. The Article proposes that courts
be given discretion to award attorneys fees to consumers who successfully
establish the unconscionability of a standard form contract. Such a remedy would
enable unconscionability to meet the challenges posed by standard form contracts
and would be fully consistent with unconscionabilitys nature and history.
Federal Contracting and Acquisition: Progress, Challenges, and
the Road Ahead by Steven L. Schooner, George Washington University - Law
School, Chapter in FRAMING A PUBLIC MANAGEMENT RESEARCH AGENDA, p. 30, IBM
Center for the Business of Government, 2010, GWU Legal Studies Research Paper
No. 483, GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 483
Abstract: This brief paper discusses the Obama administration’s
public procurement agenda, major trends that influence the acquisition regime
(that now encompasses $500B annually), and significant challenges the
administration faces in improving the value it receives for the money it spends.
It concludes with a group of research questions suggested by participants at the
November IBM forum on Framing a Public Management Research Agenda.
Emerging Policy and Practice Issues (2009) David J. Berteau
Center for Strategic and International Studies, Defense-Industrial Initiatives
Group, Steven L. Schooner George Washington University - Law School, West
Government Contracts Year in Review Conference (Covering 2009), GWU Legal
Studies Research Paper No. 491, GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 491
Abstract: This paper, presented at the West Government Contracts
Year in Review Conference (covering 2009), attempts to identify the key trends
and issues for 2010 in U.S. federal procurement. In large part, the paper
focuses upon the challenges inherited by the Obama administration and its
efforts during its first year in office. Among other things, the paper suggests
that the administration charted a course of what it perceived as bold action -
most dramatically, touting “savings” and accountability, while
permitting special interests to distract focus from value for money and customer
satisfaction. Accordingly, at least to date, the Obama administration’s
procurement policies lack a cohesive theme, suggest a reactive rather than
proactive approach, strongly indicate a special interest bias, and, at best,
have sent mixed messages at a critical juncture.
Late is Late:
Should the GAO Continue to Employ GAO-Created Exceptions to the FAR? by Major
Robert E. Samuelsen II, and
Command Authority over Contractors Serving
with or Accompanying the Force, by Lieutenant Colonel Charles T. Kirchmaier,
The Army Lawyer, December 2009.
Federal
Contracting and Acquisition: Progress, Challenges, and the Road Ahead,
Steven L. Schooner, George Washington University - Law School, Chapter in
Framing A Public Management Research Agenda, p. 30, IBM Center for the Business
of Government, 2010, GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 483, GWU Law School
Public Law Research Paper No. 483
Abstract: This brief paper
discusses the Obama administration’s public procurement agenda, major
trends that influence the acquisition regime (that now encompasses $500B
annually), and significant challenges the administration faces in improving the
value it receives for the money it spends. It concludes with a group of research
questions suggested by participants at the November IBM forum on Framing a
Public Management Research Agenda.
HALLIBURTON HEARS A WHO? POLITICAL QUESTION DOCTRINE DEVELOPMENTS IN THE GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR AND THEIR IMPACT ON GOVERNMENT CONTINGENCY CONTRACTING by MAJOR CHAD C. CARTER, Volume 201 Military Law Review, Fall 2009.
The European
Defense Procurement Directive: An American Perspective, Christopher R.
Yukins George Washington University - Law School, The Government Contractor,
Vol. 51, No. 41, November 2009, GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 480, GWU
Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 480
Abstract: On August
21, the new European directive on defense and security procurement, Directive
2009/81/EC, entered into force. See, e.g.,EU Adopts New Defense and Security
Procurement Directive, 6 IGC ¶ 65. Previously, most European defense
procurement was considered exempt from the European procurement directives that
have harmonized procurement, with greater transparency and competition, across
Europe. Under the new defense directive, all but the most sensitive defense and
security procurements in Europe will have to be conducted under rules consistent
with the new directive.
From an American vantage point, however, it
is not yet clear how the new directive will be implemented. If the defense
directive merely brings new competition and transparency to the European
procurement markets, the directive will be a welcome improvement in what was
traditionally a closed and uncompetitive market. But if, in practice, the
directive is used as an excuse to discriminate against U.S. exporters - or if it
is perceived as a tool of discrimination - the directive threatens to trigger
serious trade frictions in the transatlantic defense markets.
Contract
Interpretation: What is it About?, David McLauchlan, Victoria University of
Wellington - Faculty of Law, October 5, 2009
Abstract: In recent
times contract interpretation has become one of the most contentious areas of
the law of contract. There are fundamental divisions among commentators,
practitioners and judges (often writing extra-judicially) as to the nature of
the task and the permissible aids to interpretation. This article highlights the
reasons for these divisions and suggests that the position of those who advocate
a liberal approach to the latter issue is sometimes misunderstood. The author
argues that there are no convincing reasons of principle, policy or convenience
for refusing to receive evidence of prior negotiations and subsequent conduct:
in particular, admitting such evidence is not, as commonly thought, inconsistent
with the objective approach to interpretation. However, at the same time it is
stressed that it will only be in relatively exceptional cases that the evidence
will provide a helpful or reliable guide to the true intention of the parties.
The Department of Defenses Use of Private Security Contractors
in Iraq and Afghanistan: Background, Analysis, and Options for Congress,
Moshe Schwartz Specialist in Defense Acquisition, Congressional Research
Service, September 29, 2009.
From the Introduction: The 111th
Congress is grappling with a broad range of issues regarding the use of private
security contractors (PSCs) to provide security for people and property in Iraq
and Afghanistan. The United States has gradually increased the types of tasks
and roles for which it contracts with private companies in military operations.
Congress has generally accepted the concept of using unarmed contractors to
carry out support functions in military operations, such as providing food and
laundry services, although not without concerns regarding the costs of contracts
and alleged favoritism in issuing them. But for the Department of Defense (DOD),
Iraq and Afghanistan present new challenges. The United States is relying
heavily, apparently for the first time during combat or stability operations, on
private firms to supply a wide variety of security services. Given the shortage
of U.S. troops, PSCs are widely viewed as being vital to U.S. efforts in the
region. Many Members are concerned about transparency, accountability, and legal
and symbolic issues raised by the use of armed civilians to perform security
tasks formerly performed primarily by military personnel, as well as the
negative effect that PSCs may be having on U.S. counter-insurgency efforts.
This report discusses the type of work performed by PSCs, why DOD uses PSCs,
and the number of armed security contractors working in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The report also examines whether the use of PSCs could undermine U.S. efforts in
the region.
DOJ OFFICE OF
LEGAL COUNSEL, MEMORANDUM OPINION FOR SARA D. LIPSCOMB GENERAL COUNSEL, SMALL
BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION, August 21, 2009.
Re: Permissibility of Small
Business Administration Regulations Implementing the Historically Underutilized
Business Zone, 8(a) Business Development, and Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned
Small Business Concern Programs
Government Contracting
Disputes: Its Not All About the Money,Major Scott E. Hutmacher, The Army
Lawyer, August 2009.
From the Intoduction: Money isnt everything.
This cliché is not only true in life; it is also true in the world of government
contract appeals. Nonmonetary remedies are available and viable alternatives to
monetary relief. Parties in the government contracting process, at some time or
another, find themselves in a dispute and one party wants a specific type of
relief . . . this is disputes 101. The relief sought in most contract disputes
is monetary. However, monetary relief does not always make the allegedly wronged
party “whole.” Sometimes, what the party seeks is nonmonetary
relief.
This article serves as a practical guide
to contract litigators. The article first identifies the forums available for
disputes in government contracting and the particular authorities creating the
forum. The article then outlines the nonmonetary remedies available in those
forums. The article goes on to identify and address the limitations of
nonmonetary relief available to the forums. Finally, the article provides
litigators the ability to understand what contractors may ask for and some
instances of what they received.
Less is More: Encouraging Greater Competition in Computer
Software Procurement by Simplifying the DFARS Licensing Scheme, C. Peter
Dungan, United States Army, March 16, 2009
Abstract: "Unduly
confusing," "daunting," "onerous," and "counter-intuitive" are all terms that
describe the Department of Defense's (DoD) regulations regarding intellectual
property (IP) rights in computer software. Practitioners and academics have
assailed the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulations Supplement (DFARS)
provisions regarding IP rights in software as being too difficult for
contractors to understand and being too protective of government interests. This
confusing maze of regulations has discouraged small, non-traditional companies -
the type of companies that generate the groundbreaking technology most sought
after by the DoD - from entering the federal marketplace.
This paper examines the current DFARS software IP
rights scheme and provides a roadmap for further reform. Part II analyzes the
history of software development and the historical regulations governing DoD's
procurement of software. Part III examines the current DFARS provisions
governing rights in software. Even after two congressionally mandated rewrites,
the DFARS retains the protectionist character of Cold War era IP regulations.
Part IV examines the viewpoints of the stakeholders in government-procured
software. Contractors view intellectual property as the "crown jewel" of
corporate assets. Moreover, DoD often does not need the extensive rights that
these regulations confer. Finally, Part V suggests a way to encourage
non-traditional firms to enter the government marketplace. The current standard
licenses for software are are too broad and grant the Government rights that it
does not need. Reformed DFARS clauses should confer rights through negotiation
and establish, as the maximum the Government can demand, a level of rights equal
to the current government purpose rights license. Such a reform would alleviate
the fears many companies have that the Government will pawn off their "crown
jewels."
The Future Use of Corporate Warriors with the U.S. Armed Forces:
Legal, Policy, and Practical Considerations and Concerns , COL David
“Dave” A. Wallace, USA
The privatization of warfare has led to
many interesting and complex issues. Among the myriad of issues is what role, if
any, private security contractors should play in augmenting the U.S. armed
forces future force structure. Against this backdrop, the article highlights
certain considerations policymakers, military leaders, and force planners should
balance when analyzing the future use of private security contractors. To make a
proper determination on the future use of private security contractors, decision
makers must weigh the benefits associated with the capabilities and
characteristics of private security contractors with the costs of using such
private actors. In that context, the article addresses several overarching legal
policies, practical concerns, and risks associated with their future use.
Offset
Contracts under Defence Procurement Regulations in India: Evolution, Challenges
and Prospects, ©2009, Sandeep Verma. Further use without the
permission of author is prohibited. This paper won NCMA’s “The W.
Gregor Macfarlan Excellence in Contract Management Research and Writing Program
2008 Award” as best graduate research paper on contract management. This
paper represents author’s work-in-progress, and observations and comments
for its improvement are solicited.
Abstract The practice of
countries demanding discharge of offset obligations as a prerequisite to foreign
firms’ participation in major civilian or defence contracts is not new,
and recent years in particular have seen a number of countries, both developed
and developing, apply offsets and industrial participation measures at an
ever-growing scale and complexity, as governments worldwide use their purchasing
power to develop local capacities and channelize investments and technology to
favored domestic sectors. This paper traces the history of offset regulations in
defence procurement in India, together with a legal analysis of this
evolutionary path over the last four years. It then identifies challenges and
areas of concern in the existing regulatory framework, and comes up with
suggestions on the way forward to address the identified areas of concern
keeping in view two primary objectives of procurement reform, namely, enhancing
efficiency and uniformity in the administration of offset contracts in India.
Contesting Task And Delivery Order Awards At The COFC—Policy Implications Of A Choice Federal Courts May Soon Have To Make, by Sandeep Verma, a senior member of the Indian Administrative Service, 51 Government Contractor No. 20, May 20, 2009. Reprinted from The Government Contractor, with permission of Thomson Reuters. Copyright © 2009. Further use without the permission of West is prohibited. For further information about this publication, please visit www.west.thomson.com/store, or call 800.328.9352.
Suing the Hired Guns: An Analysis of Two Federal Defenses to
Tort Lawsuits Against Military Contractors, Andrew Finkleman, Brooklyn
Journal of International Law, VOLUME XXXIV, NUMBER 2, 2009.
From the
Introduction As the U.S. military decreased in size following the Cold War,
the role of government contractors in combat zones grew ever larger. The
military-contractor phenomenon has mushroomed in recent years, and private
contractors now play pivotal roles in U.S. military and reconstruction
operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The government’s use of contractors to
perform military and foreign affairs-related functions raises a host of
political, moral, and legal questions. While the U.S. intervention in Iraq and
Afghanistan continues with no apparent end in sight, these questions justifiably
remain at the forefront of the national debate.
This
Article addresses a narrow aspect of the nation's use of private contractors in
Iraq and Afghanistan. While the lack of criminal accountability for contractors
has received much critical commentary, scholars have paid comparatively little
attention to the possible civil liabilities they face. This Article attempts to
shine some light on this topic by addressing the defenses and immunities that
might protect private military contractors from civil liability.
The George Washington University Law School Government Procurement Law Program and the Boards of Contract Appeals Bar Association are pleased to present a special colloquium on: Contractor Compliance: Next Steps in Anti-Corruption, June 09, 2009. Papers from the program.
Why Breach of Contract May Not Be Immoral Given the
Incompleteness of Contracts, Steven Shavell, Harvard Law School; National
Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), March 1, 2009, Harvard Law and Economics
Discussion Paper No. 631
Abstract: There is a widely held view that
breach of contract is immoral. I suggest here that breach may often be seen as
moral, once one appreciates that contracts are incompletely detailed agreements
and that breach may be committed in problematic contingencies that were not
explicitly addressed by the governing contracts. In other words, it is a mistake
generally to treat a breach as a violation of a promise that was intended to
cover the particular contingency that eventuated.
Modification of a Government Contract Awarded Following a
Competitive Procedure, Omer Dekel, Academic Center of Law and Business,
Public Contract Law Journal, Vol. 38, No. 2, 2009
Abstract: The
issue of whether and to what extent a government authority may introduce
subsequent changes into a procurement contract signed following a competitive
procedure is one of the more practical and problematic questions in the area of
procurement law. The article points out the difficulty inherent in this type of
change, even if it is made upon mutual consent of the parties.
The article discusses the regulatory regime reached by the
courts, under which a later change to a procurement contract is permissible and
left to the discretion of the contracting officer (CO). As part of this
discretion, the CO can take into account a number of considerations, the main
ones being: the extent to which the requested change materially alters the
original contract and the extent to which the requested modification could have
been anticipated by a reasonable bidder. The article proposes to change this
regime on two fronts: first, to adopt a rule by which a change to a contract
would be impermissible unless special exceptions exist; second, to allow the CO
to take into account a wider variety of considerations in deciding whether or
not to permit such change.
Private Military and Security Companies: A
Framework for Regulation, by James Cockayne and Emily Speers Mears, March
2009, International Peace Institute.
Cockayne and Speers Mears examine the
shortcomings of existing state, industry, intergovernmental, and civil society
mechanisms for global security industry regulation, and put forward five
possible regulatory frameworks for the global security industry. The report is
based on a six-month study of approaches to regulation in other global
industries, and extensive consultation with security industry stakeholders. The
full, book-length study Beyond Market Forces: Regulating the Global Security
Industry, will be published by IPI later in 2009
Playing By The Numbers: Recalculating How Many Employees Equal A Small Business, by Ralph C. Thomas III, February 2009. “SBA’s proposed new standard for determining small business status has been soundly criticized. However, with just a few adjustments, SBA’s new standard can obtain the necessary buy-in of small businesses.”
Rothe Development Corporation
v. Department of Defense: The Constitutionality of Federal Contracting Programs
for Minority-Owned and Other Small Businesses, by Jody Feder and Kate M.
Manuel, March 16, 2009. Congressional Research Service, Federation of American
Scientists web site.
Summary This report discusses Rothe Development
Corporation v. Department of Defense, a case involving a constitutional
challenge to a minority contracting program authorized under Section 1207 of the
Department of Defense (DOD) Authorization Act of 1987. This program allowed DOD
to take 10% off the price of bids or offers submitted by “small
disadvantaged businesses” in determining which bid or offer had the lowest
price or represented the best value for the government. Section 1207 also
incorporated a presumption that minorities are socially and economically
disadvantaged.
In Rothe, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal
Circuit struck down the DOD preference program, holding that Section 1207 was
facially unconstitutional because Congress did not have sufficient evidence to
conclude that there was racial discrimination in defense contracting when it
reauthorized the program in 2006. This report examines the Rothe decision in
detail; describes existing contracting programs for minority-owned and
women-owned small businesses; and analyzes Rothe’s potential effect on
these programs, including the Business Development Program under Section 8(a) of
the Small Business Act.
International
Public Procurement Developments in 2008; Public Procurement in a World Economic
Crisis, Robert D. Anderson, World Trade Organization, Christopher R. Yukins,
George Washington University - Law School, West Government Contracts Year in
Review Conference (Covering 2008), GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 458, GWU
Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 458
Abstract: These two
papers, presented at the West Government Contracts Year in Review Conference
(covering 2008), discuss developing issues in international public procurement.
Among other things, the Anderson paper addresses the role of the World Trade
Organization in public procurement; other organizations -- such as the World
Bank, the UN, and the OECD -- that play increasingly important roles; the role
of competition or antitrust policy vis-a-vis procurement; and discrete issues
such as public-private partnerships and framework agreements. The Yukins paper
addresses, among other things, protectionist pressures that are being applied to
the crisis-generated stimulus spending packages. The Yukins paper recommends
that the Obama administration should tailor any fiscal stimulus procurements to
comply with existing international free-trade agreements, and continue to
advocate, quite forcefully, for building capacity and reform in procurement
around the world.
Tempering 'Buy American' in the Recovery Act - Steering Clear of a
Trade War, Steven L. Schooner, George Washington University - Law School,
Christopher R. Yukins, George Washington University - Law School, Government
Contractor, Vol. 51, No. 10, 2009, GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 462, GWU
Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 462,
Abstract: The
controversial 'Buy American requirements in Section 1605 of the American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 threaten to stir protectionism leading to
an outright trade war. This could be catastrophic in the current economic
crisis, particularly since the Obama administration does not appear to believe
that additional domestic preferences are needed for U.S. procurement. The
pending challenge for federal regulators, therefore, will be to craft a rule
that contains the Recovery Act's international impact, while implementing
Congress' intent. The authors suggest that the optimal approach seems to be the
most simple: to fold new procurement under the Recovery Act into the existing
FAR regulatory structure, which accommodates the U.S.' many trade agreements.
This would ensure that federal agencies' procurements adhere to those trade
agreements (and also increases the likelihood that an already over-taxed
acquisition workforce can consistently apply the new rules.) This simple, quick
and elegant approach would be the least likely to generate new, potentially
disastrous waves of protectionism in the critical, but treacherous, waters of
global commerce.
Emerging Policy and Practice Issues (2008), Steven L. Schooner
George Washington University - Law School, David J. Berteau, Center for
Strategic and International Studies, Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group, West
Government Contracts Year in Review Conference (Covering 2008), GWU Legal
Studies Research Paper No. 459, GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 459
Abstract: This paper, presented at the West Government Contracts
Year in Review Conference (covering 2008), attempts to identify the key trends
and issues for 2009 in U.S. federal procurement. In large part, the paper
focuses upon the challenges facing the incoming Obama administration, which
faces a number of interrelated, critical, systemic challenges that pervade the
acquisition landscape. Federal procurement spending has exploded in this decade.
As a result - and, in addition to decisions made during the 1990's - the
Government is heavily outsourced, dependent upon contractors to an extent - in
degree and in type - that makes many uncomfortable. To exacerbate matters, the
Government lacks a sufficient acquisition workforce to responsibly manage its
cadre of contractors (including an increasingly blended-military-contractor,
civil servant-contractor, and/or military-civil servant-contractor-workforce).
The failure to plan and staff the acquisition function in Iraq and Afghanistan,
particularly, the ill-conceived and poorly-orchestrated reliance on arms-bearing
(or private security) contractors in the battle area, will continue to generate
bad procurement news and erode confidence. Thus, the foreseeable future will be
dominated by a deeply ingrained, broad-based anti-contractor sentiment, which
will manifest in the form of initiatives intended to achieve greater (pick your
label) accountability, compliance, corruption control, ethics, integrity,
transparency, etc. All of which signals turbulent times ahead, whether or not
the new administration embarks upon an epochal public works program that would
continue to fuel the breathtaking increases in procurement spending that have
spanned this new century.
Public Procurement: Focus on People, Value for Money and Systemic
Integrity, Not Protectionism, Steven L. Schooner George Washington
University - Law School Christopher R. Yukins George Washington University - Law
School, THE COLLAPSE OF GLOBAL TRADE, MURKY PROTECTIONISM, AND THE CRISIS:
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE G20, Chapter 17, Richard Baldwin and Simon Evenett,
eds., A VoxEU.org Publication GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 460 GWU Law
School Public Law Research Paper No. 460
Abstract: The authors
assert that, in the face of severe economic challenges, efficient and effective
public purchasing is critical. Governments should focus on obtaining the
greatest possible value for money expended and minimizing corruption, while
eschewing counter-productive and inefficient protectionist constraints on
procurement regimes. Stimulus investments in strengthening the acquisition
workforce - the officials responsible for spending the government's money
honestly and consistent with sound, business-based, transparent practices - will
pay both short- and long-term dividends.
IMPOSSIBILITY, IMPRACTICABILITY, AND FRUSTRATION, Melvin A.
Eisenberg, The Journal of Legal Analysis, Vol 1, No 1 (2009), Harvard
Abstract:
Three fundamental concepts underlie the principles that should govern
unexpected-circumstances cases. (1) A contract consists not only of the writing
in which it is partly embodied, but also includes, among other things, certain
kinds of tacit assumptions. (2) These assumptions may be either event-centered
or magnitude-centered. (3) The problems presented by unexpected-circumstances
cases should be viewed in significant part through a remedial lens. The
principles that rest on these concepts can be broadly summarized as follows. A
shared nonevaluative tacit assumption that a given circumstance will persist,
occur, or not occur during the contract time should provide a basis for judicial
relief where the assumption would have affected the promisor's obligations had
it been made explicit. If the promisor was neither at fault for the occurrence
of the unexpected circumstance, nor in control of the conditions that led to the
occurrence, she should not be liable for expectation damages. The promisor
should, however, be liable for restitutionary damages, because it would be
unjust to allow the promisor to both be excused from performance and retain any
benefits that she received under the contract. Alternatively, the promisor
should be liable for reliance damages where she is at fault for the creation of
the unexpected circumstance, but the fault is minor; where the promisor is in
control of the conditions that led to the occurrence of the unexpected
circumstances; or where an objective of the contract was to reserve for the
promisor the promisee's time, labor, or productive capacity. A seller should
also be entitled to judicial relief if as a result of a dramatic and unexpected
rise in her costs, performance would result in a financial loss that is
significantly greater than the risk of loss that the parties would reasonably
have expected that the seller had undertaken. If, under such circumstances, the
market value of the contracted-for commodity has risen in tandem with the
seller's costs, the buyer should be entitled to the profit he would have made if
a reasonably foreseeable increase in the seller's cost of performance, and a
corresponding increase in the market value of the commodity, had occurred. In
appropriate cases, courts should take into account gains and losses to both
parties that proximately resulted from, or were made possible by, the occurrence
of the unexpected circumstance.
ADAPTING U.C.C. § 2-615 EXCUSE FOR CIVILIAN-MILITARY
CONTRACTORS IN WARTIME, Jennifer S. Martin, Florida Law Review, January
2009, Vol. 61 No. 1
Abstract: When should a civilian seller of goods
who delays delivery or cancels altogether under a wartime contract be able to
claim excuse under U.C.C. Article 2? The unprecedented extent of the U.S.
military’s use of contractors abroad calls for a rethinking of U.C.C.
impracticability, as private parties face wartime risks once encountered solely
by the government. The traditional approach typically denies the seller the
right to excuse the failure of delivery in instances where the wartime risk
might be categorized as foreseeable or is expressly or impliedly allocated to
the seller. This analysis forces a dilemma upon the seller facing threats of
serious injury or death. At the same time, the civilian seller typically does
not enjoy the same privileges regarding use of force that government
provisioners once exercised. This Article proposes a new paradigm-one that would
hold sellers to deliver goods in most circumstances, but would make excuse
available to sellers through an analysis of functions that are inherently
governmental. This analysis grants excuse where the risks associated with
wartime contingencies requiring a military response are inherently governmental
and, therefore, remain with the government. The rationale balances the interests
of civilians performing wartime contracts and the military’s need for
goods and control of the wartime theater that would warrant excusing contractors
during wartime from performance in cases of extreme hazard to a
contractor’s employees.
Street FOIA 101: Nuts, Bolts, and
Loose Change, Lieutenant Colonel Craig E. Merutka, The Army Lawyer, December
2008
Introduction This article is written for members of the
“street FOIA Teams” at various levels. It provides up to date
information on recent changes and some practical nuts and bolts information on a
number of FOIA topics. The issues raised are those that have impact at the
installation and lower level, those that have been the subject of inquiry here
at the Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School, or are details
the author did not necessarily know about when he was practicing out on the
street but wishes he did.
The New Text of the Agreement on Government Procurement: An
Analysis and Assessment, Arie Reich, Bar-Ilan University - Faculty of Law,
January 12, 2009
Abstract: This article describes and analyzes the
new, tentatively agreed text of the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement. It
compares it to the existing agreement of 1995, offers interpretation of its
provisions and discusses its potential implications for the regulation of
international government purchasing. The objective of the article is to examine
whether it has indeed delivered on its promise, namely to improve the existing
agreement and to eliminate any remaining discriminatory measures and practices.
To that aim it presents the critique that has been leveled against the
provisions of the existing GPA and examines to what extent the flaws detected by
this critique have been rectified in the new text. The paper concludes with a
scorecard of the new text assessing its allover strengths and weaknesses.
Training the Military to Manage Contractors During Expeditionary
Operations: Overview and Options for Congress, Moshe Schwartz, Congressional
Research Service, December 17 , 2008.
SUMMARY: The Department of
Defense (DOD) is responsible for performing a wide range of expeditionary
missions, including domestic emergency operations and military operations
outside of the continental United States. DOD increasingly relies on contractors
during expeditionary operations to perform a wide range of services. For
example, more contractors are working for DOD in Iraq and Afghanistan than are
U.S. military personnel. As a result, military personnel in the field are
increasingly interacting with and responsible for managing contractors. Yet many
observers argue that the military is not sufficiently prepared to manage
contractors during expeditionary missions. The National Defense Authorization
Act of FY2008 (H.R. 4986/P.L. 110-181) required DOD, and especially the Army, to
train military personnel who are outside the acquisition workforce but are
expected to have acquisition responsibility , and to incorporate contractors and
contract operations into mission exercises.
DOD,
including the Army, are taking a number of steps to comply with Congressional
legislation to better prepare the operational force—including servicemen
and women conducting military operations on the battlefield—to work with
contractors. These steps include developing doctrine for integrating contract
support into expeditionary operations, introducing courses on contract support
into the curriculum for non-acquisition personnel, and incorporating contract
operations into mission readiness exercises. This report examines these steps
being taken by DOD and options for Congress to monitor DOD’s efforts to
comply with P.L. 110-181. Options include requiring military departments to
report on acquisition education courses available for operational personnel.
This report will be updated as events warrant.
“The Hidden Costs of
Contracting: Private Law, Commercial Imperatives and the Privatized Military
Industry” Paper, International Security Program, Belfer Center for
Science and international Affairs December 2008, Author: Rebecca Ulam Weiner,
Former Research Fellow, International Security Program, 2005-2007
From
the paper: On September 16, 2007, a group of contractors working for the
firm Blackwater USA engaged in a chaotic and bloody firefight in Baghdad's
Nisoour Square that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead, Blackwater's $500 million in
government contracts in jeopardy and the future of the privatized security
industry in question. What exactly happened in Nisoour Square remains in
dispute. Blackwater alleges that its contractors came under small arms fire and
lawfully engaged to stop the threat. The Iraqi government and the US military
both argue that Blackwater opened fire unprovoked and used excessive force -
including machine guns, grenade launchers and helicopter fire. The FBI, which is
conducting a formal investigation into the shootings on behalf of the Department
of Justice, argues that 14 of the 17 deaths were unjustified killings and finds
no evidence, thus far, that Blackwater was justified in shooting at civilians.
The Nisoour Square incident was broadly proclaimed
to be the final straw that would force the White House, Congress and the courts
to come to terms with the complex and often fraught relationship between the
U.S. military and the increasingly ubiquitous, increasingly interoperable
private military contractors that it hires. The FBI investigation marks the
first time since the end of the Cold War that the US government is attempting to
hold a private security company criminally liable for extraterritorial crimes
committed in the course of a government contract.
However, while the episode has subjected the
privatized military industry to heightened scrutiny from the Iraqi government,
the US military, Congress, and the public, the Department of State and the
Department of Justice contend that despite recent efforts to the close the legal
loopholes through which private military contractors have slipped in the past,
there remain considerable, perhaps insurmountable, hurdles to prosecution.
“Contractor Compliance: New Rules in a Global Market”, Materials from the December 10, 2008, GWU law School special colloquium.
How to Reduce Corruption in Public Procurement: The
Fundamentals, Juanita Olaya, Transparency International; University of Bonn
- Faculty of Law & Economics, Michael Wiehen, Transparency International
HANDBOOK FOR CUBING(sic) CORRUPTION IN PUBLIC PROCUREMENT, PART I, pp. 13-105,
Transparency International, 2006
Abstract: Procurement of goods,
works and other services by public bodies alone amounts on average to between
15% and 30% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), in some countries even more. Few
activities create greater temptations or offer more opportunities for corruption
than public sector procurement. Damage from corruption is estimated at normally
between 10% and 25%, and in some cases as high as 40 to 50%, of the contract
value.
Public procurement procedures often are complex.
Transparency of the processes is limited, and manipulation is hard to detect.
Few people becoming aware of corruption complain publicly, since it is not their
own, but government money, which is being wasted.
This document is Part I of the Handbook for
Curbing Corruption in Public Procurement published by Transparency International
in 2006 and its purpose is to provide an overview of the problem of corruption
in public contracting. Sections 2 and 3 of the Handbook, written by other
authors, offer suggestions and experiences of how this problem can be addressed.
The full text of the Handbook has been made available.
Essay—After Blackwater: A Mission-Focused Jurisdictional Regime for Private Military Contractors During Contingency Operations, by Michael Hurst, GWU Law Review, VOLUME 76 NUMBER 5 AUGUST 2008.
Why Contractor Fatalities Matter, Steven L. Schooner, George
Washington University - Law School, Parameters, Volume 38, No. 3, Page 78
(Autumn 2008)
Abstract: At the end of July 2008, the media reported
that 4,600 service members have died in Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring
Freedom. But reporting only military fatalities understates the human cost of
America's engagements in these regions by nearly a fourth. On the modern,
outsourced battlefield, the U.S. government increasingly has delegated to the
private sector the responsibility to stand in harm's way and, if required, die
for America. As of 30 June 2008, more than 1,350 civilian contractor personnel
had died in Iraq and Afghanistan, while another 29,000 contractors have been
injured; more than 8,300 seriously. Nonetheless, contractor fatalities (and
injuries) remain generally outside the public's consciousness. This article
asserts that, in a representative democracy, public awareness of the human cost
of our nation's security and foreign policies is critical.
After the Battle of the Forms: Commercial Contracting in the
Electronic Age, Francis Joseph Mootz III William S. Boyd School of Law,
UNLV, I/S: A Journal of Law and Policy for the Information Society, Vol. 4, p.
271, 2008 , UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper No.
08-33
Abstract: This is a substantially expanded and revised
version of a paper posted earlier, which will appear in the peer-review journal,
I/S: A Journal of law and Policy for the Information Society.
Commercial parties continue to fight the battle of the
forms, but electronic contracting is quickly rendering this practice obsolete.
In this article I assess the legal landscape for commercial parties after the
battle of the forms. In Part One, I briefly describe the (relatively) settled
law under U.C.C. 2-207, describe how these rules permit commercial parties to
erect a force-field to protect themselves from being subjected to unwanted
terms, describe the developments in web-based contracting and recent case law
applying contract formation principles to electronic contracting, and then
discuss how the growth of electronic contracting will eliminate the battle of
the forms that triggers the application of U.C.C. 2-207 and also will make it
difficult for commercial parties to replicate the force-field protection to
which they have grown accustomed.
In Part Two, I
discuss the two primary doctrinal options available to address contracting
realities for commercial parties once the electronic age of contracting has
eliminated the battle of the forms. The debacle surrounding Revised Article 2
suggests that the only plausible response as the theater of operations shifts
from the battle of the forms to the world of electronic contracting will be
judicial rather than legislative. Although unconscionability analysis might be a
plausible doctrine to address egregious cases, I conclude that the doctrine is
too closely aligned with consumer protection to make it a viable theory for
commercial parties. Instead, I argue that rehabilitating the doctrine of
reasonable expectations holds the most promise for addressing the commercial
contracting world after the battle of the forms. This approach enjoys the
benefit of being grounded in Karl Llewellyn's theory of the validity of standard
form contracts, is consonant with one of the important guiding principles of
Article 2, and will be sufficiently defined by the commercial context to permit
consistent application by courts policing the margins of acceptable contracting
practices.
All papers presented at the 3rd International Public Procurement Conference have been posted on the IPPC website (www.ippa.ws under “Publications”).
The Legal Challenges of Implementing Electronic Transactions,
Thomas J. Smedinghoff Wildman Harrold, Uniform Commercial Code Law Journal, Vol.
41, No. 3, 2008
Abstract: This article analyzes the law
governing electronic transactions, and the legal requirements for creating
enforceable electronic transactions of any type. It focuses on the fundamental
issues that must be addressed by any business seeking to ensure that the
processes it uses for its electronic transactions are legally valid and
enforceable. To do so, the article examines the law with respect to the
following three general questions:
* Authorization-Can this transaction
be done in electronic form? Does existing law in the relevant jurisdictions
allow the parties to conduct the proposed transaction in electronic form, or
does existing law either prohibit doing the transaction electronically or
present legal barriers that make its enforceability uncertain?
*
Electronic Requirements-What are the electronic-specific rules? What
electronic-specific rules apply, and what requirements must be satisfied to
ensure that the transaction is legally valid and enforceable? The focus here is
on electronic procedural requirements applicable to all transactions, not on the
substantive legal requirements for a particular transaction.
* Security-Is
the transaction trustworthy? What is required before the parties will be
comfortable relying on the transaction? How can the parties be sure who sent an
electronic message or who signed an electronic record? How can the parties be
sure that the record has not been altered since it was created? Are the
electronic records sufficiently trustworthy such that it will be enforced by a
court?
Trade and Competition Policy in the Developing World: Is There a
Role for the WTO?, Daniel J. Gifford University of Minnesota - Law School,
Robert T. Kudrle University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, August 13, 2008,
Minnesota Legal Studies Research Paper No. 08-27
Abstract: This
paper considers the possibilities that the member states of the WTO would adopt
some kind of antitrust provision. Initially, the paper reviews the historical
relation of competition policy to trade policy, from the Havana Conference to
the present. It then reviews the conflicts between the developing and developed
countries in the GATT. The paper explores the differences between the mind-set
of legislators adopting a competition law and trade negotiators bargaining for a
multilateral reduction in tariffs. It also identifies the influence of private
interests in both situations. The paper considers competing roles played by
competition laws and industrial policy, especially (but not exclusively) in
developing countries. It identifies the differing benefits that developed and
developing countries once perceived in a competition-law component to the WTO,
and it discusses how the realization of both sets of goals is proving
increasingly difficult. Finally, the paper shows that the dominant private
interests of developed and developing countries diverge. As a result a global
competition-law regime, whether under the WTO or not has become increasingly
unlikely.
The
Last Shall Be First: The Use Of Localized Socio-Economic Policies In Contingency
Contracting Operations, Major Bradley A. Cleveland, Military Law Review - Volume 197 - Fall
2008.
From the Introduction This article critically examines the
Federal Acquisition Regulation’s competition rules and the Competition in
Contracting Act (CICA), including the act’s legislative history. Next, the
article will discuss the current rebuilding efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq and
compare them to the United States’ rebuilding efforts in post World War II
Europe. The article will then explore the history, goals, application, and
impacts of the Afghan First and Iraqi First programs and explain why the
programs violated the full and open competition requirement. The article will
then discuss why, despite their shortcomings, the programs are vitally important
to the United States’ efforts in the regions of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Finally, the article will explain why congressionally authorized ”enhanced
contingency contracting authority” is vitally important for both
today’s contingency efforts and those that may arise in the future.
ABA SIL International Procurement Committee Year in Review
2007, Paul Lalonde affiliation not provided to SSRN. Christopher R. Yukins
George Washington University - Law School, Don Wallace Jr., Georgetown
University - Law Center, Jason Matechak, Reed Smith LLP, International Lawyer,
Vol. 42, No. 2, Summer 2008 GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 439 GWU Law
School Public Law Research Paper No. 439
Abstract: This year, the
International Procurement Committee's YIR contribution is divided into two
sections. Section I reports on the important work being carried out on, among
other things, framework contracting and electronic procurement by Working Group
I of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL).
Section II deals with the World Bank's continued campaign to eliminate
corruption in procurement through reform of the Bank's sanctions process, which
complements its Voluntary Disclosure Program.
Drowning in Blackwater: How Weak
Accountability over Private Security Contractors Significantly Undermines
Counterinsurgency Efforts, Major Jeffrey S. Thurnher, The Army Lawyer, July
2008.
From the Introduction- Drastic measures need to be taken to
improve the overall United States policy for controlling PSCs and holding those
contractors accountable for their actions. Part II of this article provides an
overview of the history of PSCs on the battlefield and explains how the United
States got itself into such a precarious position in Iraq. Part III addresses
the law of war implications of using PSCs while comparing the methods and
approaches of the various governmental agencies who hired PSCs in Iraq before
the September 2007 Blackwater incident. Part IV examines in depth the changes
made in the wake of the Blackwater incident to better control PSCs. Finally,
Part V proposes the additional accountability measures over PSCs necessary to
ensure American success in future counterinsurgency campaigns.
The Service-Disabled
Veteran-Owned Small Business in the Federal Marketplace, Lieutenant
Commander Theron R. Korsak, The Army Lawyer, July 2008.
From the
Introduction- This article will introduce agency heads, contracting
officers, Judge Advocates, and veterans to the laws and programs designed to
assist service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses in federal contracting.
To accomplish this goal, the first section of this article presents a summary of
the laws intended to assist service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses.
Following that discussion, section two focuses on socio-economic programs and
eligibility requirements. Section three is a review of common procedural issues
affecting service-disabled veteran-owned businesses. Section four explores
policy conflicts that may impact contract awards to a service-disabled
veteran-owned small business. Section five summarizes the role that federal
agencies, quasi-government organizations, and industries play to meet the 3%
goal. Finally, this article concludes with recommendations to increase contract
awards to service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses.
Too Dependent on Contractors? Minimum Standards for Responsible
Governance Steven L. Schooner, George Washington, University - Law School,
Daniel S. Greenspahn affiliation not provided to SSRN, Journal of Contract
Management, Summer 2008 GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 435, GWU
Legal Studies Research Paper No. 435.
Abstract: While acknowledging
that there are many benefits, challenges, and risks involved in outsourcing,
this article asserts that failed implementation, rather than outsourcing policy,
explains the government's current (mis)management of its contractors. This
article explores the minimum standards for responsible governance following more
than 15 years of ill-conceived and inadequate investment in the federal
government's acquisition workforce, followed by a governmentwide failure to
respond to a dramatic increase in procurement activity. These trends have led to
a buying and contract management regime animated by triage, with insufficient
resources available for contract administration, management, and oversight. The
old adage “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” rings
true. Accordingly, a prospective investment in upgrading the number, skills,
incentives, and morale of government purchasing officials would reap huge
long-term dividends for the taxpayers.
MAXIMIZING TERMINATION
FOR CONVENIENCE SETTLEMENTS/EDITION II, Part I
and Part II (first pages). by By Paul J. Seidman
and David J. Seidman. Thomson West recently published Part II of the Termination
Briefing Paper. The papers are coauthored by the father and son Paul and
David. Paul states that to the best of his knowledge it is the first father son
Government contracts publication.
An interesting side note is that Carl Vacketta taught Paul in his Government
Contracts class at Georgetown Law in 1973 and recently taught David at GWU Law.
Both Briefing Papers are available form Thomson West.
Policy & Legal
Frameworks for Opening the Chinese Procurement Markets, Christopher R.
Yukins. George Washington University - Law School, Robert D. Anderson, World
Trade Organization, West Government Contracts Year in Review Conference -
Covering 2007, GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 407
Abstract: These papers, presented at the West Government Contracts
Year in Review Conference (covering 2007), discuss the policy and legal
frameworks for opening the Chinese procurement markets. The first paper
discusses the process for accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO)
Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) and explores some related issues and
developments. The author concludes that China’s initiation of its GPA
accession process may mark a watershed in the evolution of international
regulation of public procurement markets. The latter paper focuses upon
challenge mechanisms or bid protests in the context of the WTO GPA. While
China's membership in the GPA will open the U.S. procurement market to China,
Professor Yukins suggests that what will likely remained unresolved is how
vendors offering goods from China will enforce the GPA's market-opening
provision in the U.S. federal procurement system.
Public Procurement Systems: Unpacking Stakeholder Aspirations and Expectations, Steven L. Schooner George Washington University - Law School, Daniel I. Gordon Government Accountability Office Washington, D.C.; The George Washington University Law School. Jessica Clark George Washington University - Law School, May 8, 2008, GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper . GWU Legal Studies Research Paper
| This project is very much a work in progress, and we
posted the draft at this point because are actively seeking comments, reactions,
suggestions, examples, and anecdotes. (The version posted is a significantly
condensed version.) Readers should not hesitate to correspond directly with Steve Schooner at sschooner@law.gwu.edu or, of course, with the other authors. |
Feature
Comment: U.S. Contractor Compliance Rules are Likely to Expand, Christopher R.
Yukins, George Washington University - Law School, Government Contractor,
Vol. 50, para. 147, April 23, 2008,
Abstract: In response to
recommendations and developments in the U.S. procurement community, the U.S.
Government is expected soon to issue revised standards for contractor compliance
systems. Those standards will likely require more contractors - including
contractors working abroad, and perhaps commercial-item contractors - to
establish more comprehensive compliance systems to ensure their adherence to the
many laws and rules that govern federal procurement. In this brief essay,
Christopher Yukins reviews the history of contractor compliance systems,
assesses the likely elements of the revised standards, and suggests ways to
weigh some of the costs and benefits of new compliance requirements.
Deregulating
Defense Acquisition, Fred Thompson, Willamette University - Atkinson
Graduate School of Management, Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 107, No. 4, pp.
727-750, 1993
Abstract: What we really need is a careful program
of experimentation to determine how acquisition life-cycle costs vary with
alternative acquisition-process designs and whether short lines of
communication, clear responsibility, accelerated schedules, and a modicum of
congressional neglect will produce the benefits touted by the experts. Not only
is this information needed by program managers, it is also needed to help
persuade Congress to back away from its direct supervision of the systems
acquisition process, something that neither theory nor hearsay can accomplish.
Emerging
Policy and Practice Issues, Steven L. Schooner and Danielle Conway-Jones,
George Washington University - Law School,
West Government Contracts Year
in Review Conference - Covering 2007
Abstract: This paper,
presented at the West Government Contracts Year in Review Conference (covering
2007), attempts to identify the key trends and issues for 2008 in U.S. federal
procurement. We bemoan the absence of attention to significant issues by the
current Presidential candidates, critique the leadership vacuum that sustains
the longstanding and increasingly critical acquisition workforce shortage, and
discuss the potentially active legislative agenda in light of the now-Final
Report of the Acquisition Advisory Panel (AAP), a blue-ribbon commission
mandated by Section 1423 of the Services Acquisition Reform Act (SARA). We also
discuss the dramatic post-2000 trend in increased federal procurement spending,
increased transparency due to the Federal Procurement Data System and new online
vehicles, increased attention to contractor compliance systems, continuing
problems with contracting in Iraq, and the application of certain social
policies to the procurement process.
Political
Connections and the Allocation of Procurement Contracts - Eitan Goldman,
Indiana University Bloomington - Department Of Finance, Jorg Rocholl, ESMT
European School Of Management And Technology, Jongil So, University Of North
Carolina At Chapel Hill - Finance Area, August 2007, EFA 2007 Ljubljana Meetings
Abstract: This paper analyzes whether political connections of
public corporations in the United States affect the allocation of government
procurement contracts. The paper classifies the political affiliation of S&P 500
companies using hand-collected data that detail the past political position of
each of their board members. Using this classification, the study focuses on the
change in control of both House and Senate following the 1994 midterm election
and on the change in the Presidency following the 2000 election. An analysis of
the change in the value of the procurement contracts awarded to these companies
before and after 1994 and 2000, respectively, indicates that companies that are
connected to the winning (losing) party are significantly more likely to
experience an increase (decrease) in procurement contracts. The results remain
significant after controlling for industry classifications as well as for
several firm characteristics. In total, these findings suggest that the
allocation of procurement contracts is influenced, at least in part, by
political connections. Thus, our study provides one of the first pieces of
evidence showing a direct avenue through which political connections add value
to U.S. companies.
A CRITICAL REASSESSMENT OF THE GAO BID-PROTEST MECHANISM
by Robert S. Metzger and Daniel A. Lyons, January 26,2008. Wisconsin Law Review,
Volume 2007, Issue 6.
From the Introduction This Article focuses
on the relationship between the COFC and the GAO and questions whether the GAO
should continue to serve as the forum of choice for complex and high-value
procurement-award controversies. As a corollary, this Article suggests that
decisions of the GAO need not receive the deference that agencies have
historically afforded them. The Article recognizes that the GAO bid-protest
mechanism succeeds in resolving thousands of government-contracts disputes each
year. This convenience and efficiency, however, is not without cost, as the GAO
operates without many of the safeguards of traditional judicial process. The GAO
owes its record of deference not necessarily to the quality of its decisions but
also to its relationship with Congress. In contrast, the COFC has developed as a
judicial forum with specialized procurement-law expertise. It has procedural
strengths that contrast favorably with the GAO’s more informal
adjudicative mechanism. These and other considerations suggest that federal
agencies (and the COFC) reconsider the deference they traditionally pay to GAO
bid-protest decisions. Moreover, as informed by a close examination of the GAO
process, this Article’s view is that the GAO should consider changes to
its bid-protest regulations to improve the efficacy of the Comptroller
General’s decisions while maintaining the efficiency of the GAO
bid-protest process.
Privatization
of State Administrative Services Drury D. Stevenson , South Texas College of
Law, Louisiana Law Review, Forthcoming
Abstract: Privatization of
government services has been touted as a cost-savings approach for state
agencies, promising to harness the efficiencies of market forces to overcome the
perceived inefficiencies of bureaucracies. Empirical and anecdotal evidence
indicates that such savings rarely materialize, and instead outsourcing is often
a bad deal for taxpayers. This paper explores the inherent problems in the
contractual arrangements for these attempts at government outsourcing. Perverse
incentives, transaction costs, non-competitive bidding, the nature of government
services handled on the state level, and conflicting legal rules regarding
interpretation all contribute to the failure of privatization for the states.
Good Faith and
Contract Interpretation: A Law and Economics Perspective, Simone M Sepe,
Yale Law School; University of Siena, February 2006. SIena Memos and Papers in
Law & Economics - SIMPLE Paper No. 42/06
Abstract: The widespread
acknowledgement of the implied contractual obligation of good faith is a
relatively recent phenomenon in the American legal landscape. In the paper, I
claim that the obligation of good faith in a contract should be a default rule
that parties should include in their agreement only when it maximizes the
ex-ante value of their contractual relationship. I discuss under what conditions
the requirement of good faith proves efficient and propose a basic framework of
reference for the parties' decision to include or exclude good faith in their
contract. In this framework, the obligation of good faith is conceived as the
rule of law that prohibits each contracting party from taking advantage of the
contract's incompleteness to expropriate her counterparty's expected contractual
benefits. However, I challenge the law-and-economics argument supporting the
efficiency of good faith, claiming that parties themselves should decide whether
to include or exclude good faith in their agreements. From a practical
viewpoint, this means that the interpretative regime should be determined by
private autonomy, rather than be a judicial decision based on a-priori
assumptions.
In the good-faith regime I propose, therefore, parties are
free to choose whether (i) to exclude good faith from their contracts and,
thereby, opt for a literal interpretative regime in which the contract is the
only evidentiary base courts should use in enforcing their agreement; or (ii) to
include good faith and opt for a good-faith interpretative regime, giving courts
indications on the evidentiary base that should be used to
Responding to National
Disasters and Emergencies: A Contract and Fiscal Law Primer Major
Christopher B. Walters, The Army Lawyer - October 2007.
From the
Introduction: Since the beginning of our Nation, the U.S. military has been
called upon to respond to all manner of domestic disasters and emergencies. Such
disasters, natural and man-made, have included hurricanes, typhoons, fires,
floods, earthquakes, tornados, massive explosions, and terrorist attacks. Other
types of domestic disasters and national emergencies that may require military
deployment and support include disease pandemics, major power blackouts,
nuclear, biological, or chemical releases, and civil disturbances and
insurrections, to name a few. As in all legal areas, including the fiscal and
contracting realm, judge advocates deploying in support of a domestic disaster
or emergency must be keenly aware of the types of support the military will be
asked to provide and the legal factors that will affect the response. Despite
the severity or catastrophic nature of a disaster, military support to civilian
authorities must always remain within the fiscal and contracting laws and
regulations that govern such assistance. While there are emergency acquisition
rules to add flexibility in these situations, fiscal and contracting rules
remain in effect as in all other military operations. Proactive coordination and
close cooperation by judge advocates with all fiscal and contracting offices
involved in the mission will ensure that standard procedures and rules are
followed and that military funds and resources are not misapplied.
The purpose of this primer is to provide the judge advocate
deploying in support of a domestic disaster or emergency a quick overview of the
federal response scheme, highlight some lessons learned and unusual issues that
arose in the past, and identify a recent addition to the Federal Acquisition
Regulation (FAR) resulting from Hurricane Katrina. Note that a detailed
discussion of government fiscal and contracting law procedures and regulations
is beyond the scope of this primer. Judge advocates should closely review
applicable references.
Ipse Dixit: The Restatement (Second) of Contracts and the Modern
Development of Contract Law, Gregory E. Maggs, George Washington University
Law School, George Washington Law Review, Vol. 66, No. 508, 1998 GWU Legal
Studies Research Paper No. 387, GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 387
Abstract: This article considers how courts have responded to the
inclusion of six innovative rules in the Restatement (Second) of the Law of
Contracts. It observes that most courts simply have deferred to the new rules.
In the vast majority of cases, courts gave no reasons for their decisions to
embrace the six rules. They simply cited them as they would cite a statute or
code and did not question their authority. This practice raises an important
normative question: Should courts follow the Restatement (Second) as readily as
they currently do? The article concludes that, although some arguments counsel
against deference to an academic work such as the Restatement (Second), on
balance, the practice does more good than harm. By deferring to the Restatement
(Second), courts have tended to promote uniformity and certainty in the law of
contracts and to conserve judicial resources. Although deference to the
Restatement (Second) may alter the substance of the law in some jurisdictions,
such changes generally do not have deleterious consequences.
Reframing The Defense
Outsourcing Debate: Merging Government Oversight With Industry Partnership,
Patrick Cullen Peter Ezra Weinberger Peace Operations Institute (Published with
permission of the author)
Executive Summary(partial) This report
shifts the discussion of the government’s role in defense contract
oversight away from an exclusive focus on guarding against contractor
malpractice—an important issue that has nevertheless been exaggerated in
the media—towards an understanding of contract oversight as a process of
government-industry partnership. Here, contract oversight is understood in terms
of specific technical problems that can be resolved or ameliorated by proactive
cooperation between government and industry partners. In addition to, and in
accordance with this pragmatic vision of government oversight, the report seeks
to achieve the following:
Book Review:
Outsourcing Sovereignty: Why Privatization Threatens Democracy, Richard J.
Pierce Jr., George Washington University Law School, George Washington Law
Review, Forthcoming, GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 360, GWU Law School
Public Law Research Paper No. 360
Abstract: This is a review of
Paul Verkuil's new book: Outsourcing Sovereignty: Why Privatization Threatens
Democracy and What we Can Do About It. The book consists of a wide-ranging and
well-documented critique of what Verkuil views as excessive reliance on private
contractors to perform a variety of inherently governmental tasks, with
particular emphasis on military and other national security functions. Verkuil
discusses in detail numerous ways in which the U.S. might reduce the scope and
severity of the severe problems that excessive reliance on poorly-supervised
contractors is now having.
Pierce praises Verkuil's
description and documentation of the problem he addresses in the book, but he
expresses skepticism with respect to the likely efficacy of the remedies Verkuil
discusses. Pierce proposes two other remedies that he believes would at least
enhance the efficacy of the remedies Verkuil proposes - election of a President
with better judgment than George W. Bush and congressional refusal to immunize
private contractors from potential civil and criminal liability. Pierce also
suggests, however, that downsizing and outsourcing military functions has had an
important beneficial effect - it has limited the ability of the U.S. to invade
and to occupy countries that displease the U.S., thereby reducing to two the
five or six countries the U.S. might have attempted to invade and to occupy if
it had a more robust military capability.
The Effect of
Information on the Bidding and Survival of Entrants in Procurement Auctions,
Dakshina G. De Silva, Texas Tech University - Department Of Economics, Georgia
Kosmopoulou, University Of Oklahoma - Department Of Economics, Carlos Lamarche
Department of Economics,June 8, 2007.
Abstract: In government
procurement auctions of construction contracts, entrants are typically less
informed and bid more aggressively than incumbent firms. This bidding behavior
makes them more susceptible to losses affecting their prospect of survival. In
April of 2000, the Oklahoma Department of Transportation started releasing the
internal cost estimates to complete highway construction projects. Using newly
developed quantile regression approaches, this paper examines the impact of the
policy change on aggressive entrants. First, we find that the information
release eliminates the bidding differential between entrants and incumbents
attributed to informational asymmetries. Second, we argue that the policy change
affects the prospects of survival of entrants in the market. We find that those
who used to exit the market relatively soon are now staying 37 percent longer,
while at the median level bidding duration increased by roughly 68 percent. The
policy has the potential to encourage entry in government procurement auctions
and thus increase competition.
Contracting
for Wartime Actors: The Limits of the Contract Paradigm. Jennifer S. Martin,
University of Pittsburgh School of Law, August 26, 2007.
Abstract:
Much can be (and has been) said about the war in Iraq. This essay explores the
role of contract in wartime and (particularly) reconstruction. First, it
considers the use of government contracts to privatize numerous government
functions during the reconstruction and conflict in Iraq. Second, it considers
the private ordering by contract done by government contractors to obtain
security and related services from third parties. Both types of contracting
raise complicated issues including: the proper use of force; to what extent the
contracts should have government oversight; to what extent contractors should be
accountable for crimes; and whether contractors qualify as noncombatants in case
of capture. The special issues of contracting in a warzone are not best
addressed primarily by common law doctrine. Additional rules and regulations are
necessary to address the special issues of non-state actors who contract with
the U.S. government.
Literacy And
Contract, Alan M. White, Valparaiso University School Of Law, Cathy Mansfield,
Stanford Law & Policy Review, Vol. 13, No. 2, 2002
Abstract:
Contract law imposes on consumers a “duty to read”, shorthand for a
set of related doctrines including the statute of frauds, the parol evidence
rule, and the reasonable reliance element of fraud as a contractual excuse.
Moreover, consumer protection statutes have placed heavy emphasis on information
disclosure, usually provided on additional documents, as the preferred method to
deter abuses in the marketplace. The duty to read and the myriad of disclosure
laws rely on unfounded assumptions about the ability of ordinary consumers to
read and use written documents.
The National Adult
Literacy Survey (NALS) provides sobering data on the document literacy and
quantitative skills of the American public. A surprisingly small percentage of
the adult population has the ability to extract key information from lengthy and
complex consumer contract documents and disclosure forms. Contracts and
disclosures for mortgage loans, automobile leases, and other modern transactions
are accessible to fewer than 10% of the consumers for whom they are intended.
The present state of the law, regarding contract
formation and enforceability, and the various disclosure statutes, take no
account of the literacy problem. New approaches are needed to protect consumers
and police the marketplace, using means other than the doctrines of fraud,
unconscionability, and technical disclosure statutes, and based on the reality
of the gap between adult literacy and the readability of contract forms.
Hermeneutics
and Contract Default Rules: An Essay on Lieber and Corbin Lawrence A.
Cunningham, George Washington University Law School, Cardozo Law Review, Vol.
16, No. 2225, 1995 GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 330, GWU Legal
Studies Research Paper No. 330
Abstract: The most provocative
debate in contemporary contract law scholarship concerns default rule analysis
or the manner in which courts fill gaps in incomplete contracts. The
nineteenth-century scholar Francis Lieber elaborated a comprehensive solution to
the default rules puzzle by first distinguishing the judicial acts of contract
interpretation and construction, and then by developing principles of
construction with which to choose default rules. Arthur Corbin knew about
Lieber's enterprise, but, in his treatise on contracts, dismissed Lieber's
distinction and never explored the rest of Lieber's hermeneutics. Had Corbin
addressed Lieber, much of the professorial energy expended in the prevailing
default rules debate might have been conserved.
Although Lieber’s work was rather limited
with respect to the law of contracts, his principles of construction provide an
analytical framework with which to understand and guide the way judges choose
rules that conflict with the intentions of parties in contract disputes. Because
Lieber's principles constitute foundational ideas, a return to them may be both
efficient in conserving intellectual energy and profitable in providing fresh
insights into the problems to which the ideas apply. By reviewing the
distinction between interpretation and construction as Corbin adapted it from
Lieber in Part I and then showing how Lieber's principles of construction bear
directly on the prevailing default rules debate in Part II, this Essay invites a
return to those foundational ideas and the addition of hermeneutics to the
default rules debate. This essay's discussion of Lieber's hermeneutics - adapted
for contract law according to Corbin's distinction between interpretation and
construction - is tentative and general. It recognizes a potential intellectual
debt owed to Lieber, who has been a neglected figure in contemporary American
legal thought. And while Corbin has been treated as the legal academy's
equivalent of royalty, even his distinction between interpretation and
construction has been underappreciated.
Incrementalism
: Eroding the Impediments to a Global Public Procurement Market by
Christopher R. Yukins, Steven L. Schooner, George Washington University - Law
School Georgetown Journal of International Law, Vol. 38, No. 529, 2007 GWU Legal
Studies Research Paper No. 320 GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 320
Abstract: Following decades of international negotiations and
agreements, the world's multi-trillion-dollar public procurement market appears
to be maturing into a free, open international market. To reach that point,
nations must lower a broad array of barriers to trade in procurement. As the
U.S. experience demonstrates, purchasing agencies, laboring under the
constraints of domestic preferences, may effectively seek to promote free trade.
At the same time, a variety of international organizations, from the World Trade
Organization to Transparency International, have developed tools and instruments
- including model codes and explicit nondiscrimination agreements - that ease
barriers to trade in procurement. To accelerate the erosion of these barriers,
this Article suggests assessing progress in four potentially overlapping steps:
nondiscrimination, a political decision; harmonization, an effort to coordinate
the international instruments; rationalization, an effort to enhance the
efficiency of regimes launched under the international instruments; and,
institutionalization, an integration of the evolving international procurement
norms into the legal fabric of the nations entering the international free
market in procurement.
Integrating
Integrity and Procurement: The United Nations Convention Against Corruption and
the UNCITRAL Model Procurement Law, Christopher R. Yukins, George Washington
University - Law School GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 282, GWU Law School
Public Law Research Paper No. 282, Public Contract Law Journal, Vol. 36, No. 3,
2007.
Abstract: Traditionally, procurement reform and
anti-corruption initiatives have followed separate tracks, although they share a
common purpose: a sound government, supported by a robust and politically
legitimate procurement system. Now two initiatives at the United Nations may
integrate those disparate strands. The United Nations Commission on
International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) is working to reform the UNCITRAL Model Law
on Procurement of Goods, Construction and Services(the UNCITRAL Model
Procurement Law), an important instrument for harmonizing, and strengthening,
procurement systems throughout the developing world. At the same time, the U.N.
Convention Against Corruption, a sweeping commitment to fight corruption
internationally, has been signed by 140 countries. This paper reviews how the
two U.N. initiatives can work together, and concludes that the UNCITRAL Model
Procurement Law provides precisely the sort of structured system of rules called
for by the Convention. Moreover, by containing corruption, the U.N. Convention
could make it possible to loosen at least some of the cautious constraints that
confine most procurement systems, including those under the UNCITRAL Model
Procurement Law. Ultimately, therefore, the U.N. Convention Against Corruption,
if prudently implemented, could serve as a catalyst for procurement reform
around the world. More broadly, the two U.N. initiatives show the powerful
synergies that can be gained by carefully coordinating procurement reform and
anticorruption efforts.
The FTCA
Discretionary Function Exception and Accounting Malpractice Steven L.
Schooner George Washington University - Law School GWU Law School Public Law
Research Paper No. 302 GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 302 The Army Lawyer,
March 1999 and September 1996
Abstract: These two short pieces
discuss General Dynamics Corp. v. United States, in which the Ninth Circuit
reversed what appeared to be the first successful use of the Federal Torts
Claims Act (FTCA) by a government contractor to pursue a professional
malpractice claim against a federal agency, awarding more than $25 million in
damages due to professional malpractice committed by the Defense Contract Audit
Agency (DCAA). The latter piece: (1) briefly summarizes the history of the case,
explaining how a routine contractual compliance audit lead to a $25 million
malpractice award; (2) introduces the discretionary function exception to the
FTCA; (3) examines the application of the discretionary function exception in
the context of prosecutorial discretion; (4) discusses two significant cases
that demonstrate the fragile boundaries of the discretionary function exception;
(5) describes guidance from the Department of Justice for government counsel
faced with raising the discretionary function exception to dismiss FTCA actions;
and (6) concludes by acknowledging that efforts to reign in the scope of the
discretionary function exception to the FTCA are sure to continue. The earlier
piece discusses the district court decision.
What Next? A
Heuristic Approach to Revitalizing the Contract Disputes Act of 1978 Steven
L. Schooner George Washington University - Law School GWU Law School Public Law
Research Paper No. 298 GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 298 Public Contract
Law Journal, Vol. 28, p. 635, 1999
Abstract: This essay, included
in a 1999 special issue examining the Contract Disputes Act (CDA) of 1978 at its
twentieth anniversary, begins from the premise that the statute's critics have
valid reason to perceive that the CDA fails to provide a "fair and balanced
system of administrative and judicial procedures for the settlement of claims
and disputes." The essay suggests a framework for a meaningful debate over what
an improved and invigorated CDA should look like but, in the end, raises more
questions than it answers. Its purpose is heuristic; to frame a debate (which
many feel is long overdue) as to what the CDA should do and how it should do so.
It introduces a then-recent effort to articulate core principles for government
procurement dispute resolution, then deems the effort an unsatisfactory platform
for heuristic analysis. It attempts to determine the necessity for a dispute
resolution statute and suggests that the fundamental purpose for such
legislation is no more than to waive the Federal Government's immunity from
suit. The essay then turns to the breadth of an appropriate waiver. Finally, it
examines a number of issues, such as the nature of judicial and administrative
fora and the certification requirement, that permeate our present system. The
essay concludes by suggesting, at very least, that we should ask the difficult
questions
A Conceptual
Framework for Choice of Form for Acquisition Contracts, Paul Eremenko
Booz-Allen-Hamilton, Inc.; Georgetown University - Law Center; California
Institute of Technology; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), April
30,2007.
Abstract: The objective of this work is to create a
comprehensive conceptual framework for informing the choice between firm-fixed
price and cost-plus contract forms in acquisition or procurement contracts. The
effects and relative magnitudes of quality and productivity incentives, economic
profit, allocation of risk, and the option value of contract changes between the
two contractual forms is discussed.
Private Security Contractors in
Iraq: Background, Legal Status, and Other Issues June 21, 2007, Jennifer K.
Elsea Legislative Attorney American Law Division, Nina M. Serafino Specialist in
International Security Affairs Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division,
Congressional Research Service.
From the Summary The United States
is relying heavily on private firms to supply a wide variety of services in
Iraq, including security. From the information available in published sources,
this apparently is the first time that the United States has depended on
contractors to provide such extensive security in a hostile environment,
although it has previously contracted for more limited security services in
Afghanistan, Bosnia, and elsewhere. In Iraq, private firms known as Private
Security Companies (PSC) are currently providing security services such as the
protection of individuals, nonmilitary transport convoys, buildings and other
economic infrastructure, as well as the training of Iraqi police and military
personnel.
GUARDING THE
GOVERNMENT’S COFFERS: THE NEED FOR COMPETITION REQUIREMENTS TO SAFEGUARD
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT, Lani A. Perlman, 75 Fordham Law Review 3817,
2007.
From the author’s introduction This Note examines the
results of DHS’s exemption from competitive contracting requirements and
argues that open competition, as enshrined in the Competition in Contracting Act
(CICA),19 is the best means to safeguard government procurement from waste,
fraud, and abuse. Part I of this Note describes the history of competitive
contracting requirements in federal government procurement. While there is
universal agreement that government procurement must be timely, cost-effective,
and fair, there is a deep divide over the best means to reach those end goals.
Part II of this Note examines the conflict between the rule-based competition
requirements embodied in CICA and the discretionary decision-making scheme
implemented by the Reinventing Government reform movement. This Part also
examines the effort to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina, as a case study in the
dangers of noncompetitive contracting. Finally, Part III of this Note proposes
that the best means to ensure the fundamental goals of timeliness,
cost-effectiveness, and fairness is a return to statutory competition
requirements, with only specific and limited exemptions for national security.
Defense Acquisition:
Overview, Issues, and Options for Congress June 4, 2007, Congressional Research
Service-Report to Congress,
SUMMARY: Department of Defense
(DOD) activities to provide military capabilities for the defense of the nation
are usually controversial and always complex. Those activities are generally
referred to as defense acquisition. The structure DOD utilizes to plan, execute
and oversee those activities is a highly intricate and multi-variate
“system of systems” composed of the requirements, resource
allocation and acquisition systems. This system of systems has evolved over
time, its foundation being the report published by the Packard Commission in
1986, with many of those recommendations becoming part of the Goldwater-Nichols
Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1986. This evolution continued after
the Goldwater-Nichols Act as the requirements system changed from a threat-based
to a capabilities-based system; the resource allocation system added execution
reviews and concurrent program and budget reviews; and the acquisition system
changed from a structured, rigid process to a flexible, tailored process.(From
the website of the Federation of American Scientists www.fas.org)
Integrity in
Public Procurement: GOOD PRACTICE FROM A TO Z, ELODIE BETH Organization for
Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), 2007.
Abstract Lack of
transparency and accountability were recognised as a major threat to integrity
in public procurement at the 2004 OECD Global Forum on Governance: Fighting
Corruption and Promoting Integrity in Public Procurement. To verify this
hypothesis, the OECD Public Governance Committee launched a survey primarily
targeted at procurement practitioners in charge of designing, supervising and
managing procurement processes in central governments. Auditors, members of
competition authorities and anticorruption specialists have also been involved.
On the basis of the information collected, good practices were identified by
government officials, representatives from civil society and private sector at
the OECD Symposium: Mapping out Good Practices for Integrity and Corruption
Resistance in Public Procurement in November 2006.
This project maps out good practices, that is,
successful measures for enhancing integrity in public procurement. It is a
complementary part of multidisciplinary efforts in the OECD to improve public
procurement systems, in particular: (1) Assessments of public procurement
systems in developing countries by the Aid Effectiveness and Donor Practices
Working Party of the Development Assistance Committee; (2) Analysis of bribery
in public procurement by the Working Group on Bribery in International Business
Transactions; and (3) Studies of the central procurement structure and capacity
as well as review and remedies systems of the European Union Member States bythe
Support for Improvement in Governance and Management Programme (SIGMA).
Feature Comment:
Enhancing - Aligning Proposed Contractor Compliance Requirements With Broader
Advances in Corporate Compliance, Christopher R. Yukins, George Washington
University - Law School GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 264 GWU
Legal Studies Research Paper No. 264 Government Contractor, Vol. 49, p. 166,
April 25, 2007.
Abstract: In this brief comment, Professor
Christopher Yukins reviews a proposed rule to require major federal contractors
to put corporate compliance systems in place. By shifting more compliance
requirements to the Federal Acquisition Regulation itself, and by giving those
requirements real force, the proposed rule will enhance integrity in the
procurement system. Professor Yukins argues, though, that to improve on the
proposed rule, regulators should recognize that the market has moved a step
beyond the proposed rule: most contractors already benchmark their compliance
systems against the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s more demanding standards,
and some contractors have gone even further, to integrate their corporate
compliance efforts with broader quality assurance systems. (With permission of
the publisher Thomson/West Apr. 25, 2007)
Contractual Dispute Resolution in International Trade: The
UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules (1976) and the UNCITRAL Conciliation Rules (1980)
Gavan Griffith, Independent, Andrew D. Mitchell, Melbourne Law School, U of
Melbourne Legal Studies Research Paper No. 217 Melbourne Journal of
International Law, Vol. 3, p. 184, 2002
Abstract: Over the past few
decades, international commercial dispute resolution has witnessed substantial
change and improvement. A notable feature has been a move away from the
traditional court-based litigation model, allowing exploration of other methods
and techniques. The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law
(“UNCITRAL”) has played an important role in this development of
alternative dispute resolution. Since its establishment in 1966 UNCITRAL has
made improving international commercial dispute resolution one of its
priorities. Two important achievements arising from its efforts are the UNCITRAL
Arbitration Rules (1976) (“Arbitration Rules”) and the UNCITRAL
Conciliation Rules (1980) (“Conciliation Rules”). The products of
active participation ofules”). The products of active participation of
international experts from various legal, economic and social backgrounds, both
have made a significant contribution to the more efficient resolution of
international commercial disputes.
Both sets of Rules are based on agreement between the parties,
operating on a private contractual rather than public statutory level. This is
an important point which distinguishes the Rules from UNCITRAL's other major
achievement in dispute resolution: the UNCITRAL Model Law on International
Commercial Arbitration ('Model Law'). The Rules are a form of contractual trade
law dispute resolution. Since the expectations of the private parties to an
arbitration or conciliation under the Rules risk being frustrated by the
domestic laws of different countries, the Model Law provides countries with a
template that they can adopt for their national laws in order to 'provide a
hospitable legal climate for international commercial arbitration.'
This article intends to serve as an introduction to the Rules. We
begin by distinguishing conciliation from arbitration and explaining the
comparative strengths and weaknesses of these two forms of dispute resolution.
We then give an outline of the Arbitration Rules in the context of ad hoc and
institutional arbitration generally, followed by an assessment of the influence
and acceptance of the Arbitration Rules. We provide a similar analysis of the
Conciliation Rules, before concluding with a look at the likely development of
the two sets of Rules in the future.
Emerging Policy and Practice Issues (2006), Steven
L. Schooner George Washington University - Law School Christopher R.
Yukins George Washington University Law School, West Government Contracts
Year in Review Conference, 2006
Abstract:
This paper, presented at the West Government Contracts Year in Review Conference
(covering 2006), attempts to identify the key trends and issues for 2007 in U.S.
federal procurement. In large part, the paper discusses the "Draft Final" Report
of the Acquisition Advisory Panel (AAP), a blue-ribbon commission mandated by
Section 1423 of the Services Acquisition Reform Act (SARA). Proceeding from the
simple premise that the private sector does a better job with procurement by
planning carefully and employing aggressive competition, we discuss, among other
things, the inaccuracies that plague the Federal Procurement Data System; the
dramatic post-2000 trend in increased procurement spending; the AAP's tame
recommendations for commercial purchasing; and efforts to reign in (and
responsibly utilize) interagency contracting. We also question the
administration's relentless focus on competitive sourcing and critique the
leadership vacuum that led to the longstanding and increasingly critical
acquisition workforce shortage.
Material from the FBA Program-The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006, February 01, 2007. Also see Pub Law 109-282 and Senate report.
Current Problems with Multiple Award
Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity Contracts: A Primer Major
Michael C. Wong, The Army Lawyer, September 2006.
Much of the
Department of Defense (DOD) spending is on service contracts through
task orders issued under multipleaward contracts, allowing for a
streamlined, flexible acquisition process. This primer discusses the
fundamentals of multiple award indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity
(ID/IQ) contracting and current problems associated with the multiple
award ID/IQ system. The article focuses specifically on problems in the
area of competition, including the lack of fair opportunity to compete,
out of scope orders, lack of adequate supervision, and other
miscellaneous problems with the multiple award ID/IQ system. The first
section discusses the basic terminology and legal requirements of the
multiple award ID/IQ system. The second section deals with additional
legal requirements resulting from congressional modifications designed
to strengthen and encourage competition within the multiple award
system. The third section outlines problems in multiple award ID/IQ
contracting. Multiple award ID/IQ contracting has become an increasingly
important focus area for the U.S. Army and is a challenging area for
acquisition professionals.
Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 Highlights and Timeframes for Implementation of the Act by Tyson Whitney Office of Federal Financial Management, OMB. A presentation made to the National Grants Management Association. October 2006. Pub. Law 109-282
Procurement Reform in the Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year
2007&mdash:A Creature of Compromise, Pointing the Way to Future Debates ,
Christopher R. Yukins, George Washington University Law School The
Government Contractor, Vol. 48, No. 38, October 2006
Abstract: The defense authorization act for fiscal year
2007, the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year
2007, H.R. 5122, has been signed into law. This
essay reviews some of
the key provisions in the act regarding procurement reform, including:
(1) a renewed focus on lead systems integrators; (2) new technical data
obligations for commercial contractors; (3) waiver procedures for
specialty metals under the Berry Amendment; and (4) new integrity
initiatives, including a GAO study of revolving door hires at major
contractors. The essay notes that the act's many reform measures are
likely stepping-stones to broader reforms. With recent scandals and the
coming 2006 and 2008 elections, the pace of reform is, if anything, likely to
accelerate.
The
Gathering Winds Of Reform - Congress Mandates Sweeping Transparency for
Federal Grants And Contracts, Christopher R. Yukins, George
Washington University Law School GWU Law School Public Law Research
Paper No. 224 GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 224 Government
Contractor, Vol. 48, No. 34, September 20, 2006
Abstract:
The U.S. Congress, caught in a wave of scandals that stem, in part, from
corrupt contracting, recently passed sweeping legislation to require
that all federal awards (including grants, contracts and task orders) be
published online. This short essay describes the legislation, the
Federal Funding Accountability Transparency Act, and notes that, while
Congress' goal may have been generally to disperse a cloud of
corruption, in practice the Act may bring badly needed transparency to
billions of dollars in task- and delivery-order awards (frameworks
contracting, as this form of contracting is called by the European
Community Directives). Until now, those billions of dollars in orders
under standing contracts have been largely invisible in the U.S. system.
Almost inadvertently, therefore, Congress may have advanced procurement
reform enormously, and may have set the stage for future reforms after
the November 2006 elections.
The Acquisition Advisory Panel And
Performance-Based Contracting: A Wasted Year, by Vernon J. Edwards. 20 NO.
7 NASHCIBINIC ¶ 32 Excerpt:In the more than 15 years since the
Office of Federal Procurement Policy issued its policy making performance-based
contracting the preferred way to buy services, the policy has not caught on.
Working-level resistance to performance-based contracting has withstood pilot
programs, best practices guides, samples, templates, a variety of handbooks, new
regulations, new statutes, annual goals, countless conferences and seminars,
unsubstantiated claims of cost savings and quality improvements, and all manner
of hype.
This material from THE NASH & CIBINIC REPORT has been reproduced with
the permission of the publisher, Thomson West. Further use without the
permission of the publisher is prohibited. For additional information or
to subscribe, call 1-800-344-5009 or visit west.thomson.com/fedpub. THE
NASH & CIBINIC REPORT is now available on Westlaw. Visit westlaw.com
June 2006 edition of DOD Office of General Counsel Standards of Conduct Office's Encylcopedia of Ethical Failure, Courtsey of Alison Doyle,Co-Chair, ABA Public Contract Law Professional Responsibility and Contracting Ethics Committee.
A Case Study In Comparative Procurement Law: Assessing
UNCITRAL's Lessons for U.S. Procurement, CHRISTOPHER R. YUKINS,
George Washington University Law School, GWU Law School Public Law
Research Paper No. 211, GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 211, Public
Contract Law Journal, Vol. 35, No. 3, Spring 2006.
Abstract:
The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) has
commissioned a working group, with delegations from many industrialized and
developing nations, to reform and update the UNCITRAL Model Law on Procurement
of Goods, Construction and Services. The working group is currently reviewing
reforms on a number of fronts. This essay focuses on three areas of reform in
particular—electronic communications, electronic reverse auctions, and
unrealistically low bidding—to gauge whether lessons from the UNCITRAL
debate may be useful for reform in the U.S. procurement system. As the essay
reflects, the international debate surrounding UNCITRAL reform does in fact
yield many lessons for U.S. policymakers. Indeed, the analysis suggests that the
U.S. system may be at a point where it would be irresponsible not to consider
comparative lessons from reforms abroad, to ensure that U.S. procurement policy
draws thought-fully upon lessons learned from other procurement systems around
the world.
International Procurement (On 2005 Developments),
CHRISTOPHER R. YUKINS George Washington University Law School, JASON
MATECHAK Reed Smith LLP, DON WALLACE Georgetown University Law Center,
JEFFREY MARBURG-GOODMAN U.S. Agency for International Development, GWU
Legal Studies Research Paper No. 207, GWU Law School Public Law Research
Paper No. 207, Georgetown Public Law Research Paper No. 903423
International Lawyer, Vol. 40, No. 2, Summer 2006
Abstract:
The ABA International Procurement Committee has prepared this update on a number
of key international issues in 2005, including: the proceedings at the United
Nations Commission on International Trade Law, recent developments involving the
Trade Agreements Act in U.S. domestic procurement, and the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) work on untying foreign
assistance.
Post-Katrina Reconstruction
Liability: Exposing the Inferior Risk-Bearer, by Steven L. Schooner and Erin
Siuda, George Washington University - Law School
Abstract:
This Article describes the doctrinal, functional, and moral flaws inherent in
the Gulf Coast Recovery Act (GCRA), a United States Senate bill that would
provide liability protection to government contractors engaged in disaster
relief work in the areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina, as well as in future
disaster areas. First, the Article discusses the history of the government
contractor defense and finds that the protection provided by the GCRA is quite
unlike the traditional government contractor defense. This Article further
argues that this doctrinal departure cannot be justified on grounds of
efficiency or fairness, as the GCRA allocates risk away from government
contractors and the government and towards the disaster area residents and
relief workers who are potential victims. Finally, this Article notes that even
if the sort of protection provided by the GCRA may be justified under some
conditions of market failure, there is no empirical evidence that government
contractors in the Gulf Coast have experienced such conditions, and there are
superior alternatives to the GCRA that could provide such protection while
preserving a path for victim compensation. This Article concludes that the GCRA
is an untenable solution to a problem that has not been proven to exist, and one
that violates the basic principles of good government.
“Constructing a Bid
Protest Process: Choices Every Procurement
Challenge System Must Make”, GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper
No. 200, GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 200, Public Contract Law Journal,
Vol. 35, No. 3, 2006, Daniel I. Gordon, Government Accountability Office.
Washington, D.C., The George Washington University, Law
School
Abstract:
Many public procurement systems, within the United States and
abroad, have established systems for allowing vendors to
challenge the conduct of procurement processes. Providing an
effective domestic review mechanism for vendors who believe that
government procurement officials have not conducted an
acquisition lawfully brings an important measure of transparency
and accountability to public procurement systems. This brief
article discusses the goals of these bid protest systems, and
then presents key choices that must be made in crafting such a
system. For example: Where in the government is the protest forum
located? How broad is the forum’s jurisdiction? Who has standing
to protest? What are the time limits at the forum? What evidence
does the forum receive? Is the procurement put "on hold" during
the protest? How difficult is it for a protester to win? What
power does the forum have to provide meaningful relief? The
article does not describe an ideal bid protest system, but rather
presents the decisions that need to be made when constructing a
bid protest system.
“Consolidation of the Civilian Boards of Contract Appeals: New Legislation’s Impact on Practice Before the Boards”, Program materials from the April 21, 2006 GWU special colloquium.
“
Improving Federal Procurement: The Benefits of Vendor-Neutral Contract
Specifications” (February 2006). McAfee, R.
Preston
Abstract: Government procurements that specify brand names
can unnecessarily increase the price of purchases. In 2004, approximately 69
percent of the applicable solicitations for computer systems and technology
contained language that either required specific name brand microprocessors,
usually Intel, or specified that the processor should be equivalent to a
particular brand microprocessor. Such exclusionary language could cost hundreds
of millions of dollars unnecessarily. For some products, the variety and
complexity of items compel contracting agents to use brand names rather than to
detail specific technical requirements and product characteristics. In the case
of microprocessors, third-party benchmarks represent a solution to such a
procurement specification issue.
Emerging Policy
and Practice Issues (2005), STEVEN L. SCHOONER, CHRISTOPHER R. YUKINS,
The George Washington University Law School GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No.
193, GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 193, West Government Contracts
Year in Review Conference (Covering 2005)
Abstract:
This paper, presented at the West Government Contracts Year in Review Conference
(covering 2005), attempts to identify the key trends and issues for 2006 in U.S.
federal procurement. In an effort to make sense of the current reforms, the
paper focuses upon what seems to be the common imperative underlying the various
initiatives: the need to bring order to a procurement function as it devolves
away from the Government user—what some might call the "devolution" or
"outsourcing" of the contracting function. The paper also addresses emerging
issues including, among others, the death of competitive sourcing; the
acquisition workforce crisis; centralized purchasing; public service ethics in
the post-Darleen Druyun era; interagency purchasing and fees; post-Hurricane
Katrina procurement; electronic procurement and reverse auctions; and conflicts
of interest.
“Electronic Reverse Auctions: Lessons Learned, Here and Abroad”—Papers from the February 21, 2006 program by the Government Procurement Law Program, George Washington University Law School
MISADDRESSED REFORM: THE U.S. POSTAL
SERVICE’S NEW PROCUREMENT
GUIDELINES By David P. Hendel, January 13, 2006. Posted with permission
from the Washington Legal
Foundation
Relying on the theory if corporations don’t
need them, we don’t need them, the U.S. Postal Service recently
converted its purchasing regulations into “non-binding”
guidelines. 70 Fed. Reg. 20291 (Apr. 19, 2005). What had been 266 pages
of far-sighted purchasing rules which had the force and effect of law
have been downgraded into non-binding guidelines. This LEGAL
BACKGROUNDER examines whether the rationale for taking this action is
justified, whether the guidelines really are “non-binding,” and what
the
likely impact will be.
Recent Federal Grants Law Cases November 2005, A November 17, 2005 presentation to the State Department by Jana Gagner, Senior Counsel Federal Assistance Law Division Office of the General Counsel U.S. Department of Commerce. PowerPoint version. PDF Version
Origins and
Development of the Contract Clause by JAMES W. ELY Jr.. Vanderbilt
University - School of Law November 1, 2005, Vanderbilt Public Law Research
Paper No. 05-36
Abstract:
This essay examines the origins and early construction of the contract clause of
the Constitution. It points out that the contract clause must be understood in
the context of the troubled economic circumstances of post-Revolutionary
America. The clause, which was little debated at the Philadelphia convention,
can be traced to language in the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. This paper focuses
on the contested issue of whether the framers intended the g to cover only
contracts between private parties or to extend to public contracts between
states and individuals. As asserted by the Progressive historians, it has long
been the dominant position among scholars that Chief Justice John Marshall
expanded the meaning of the contract clause when he ruled that the provision
governed private contracts. This paper disputes that conventional wisdom and
argues that the clause could fairly be construed to safeguard both public and
private contracts from state abridgement. It gives attention to discussion at
the state ratifying conventions as well as to the views of prominent members of
the constitutional convention. The paper also considers pre-Marshall court cases
that examined the meaning of the contract clause and the famous 1796 opinion
letter by Alexander Hamilton. Although recognizing that it is difficult to
establish a collective state of mind concerning the scope of the ban against
contractual impairments, the paper concludes that there was ample support for
the views later endorsed by the Marshall Court concerning the reach of this
provision.
In Memoriam, John Cibinic,
Jr.,
RALPH C NASH George Washington University - Law School, JOSEPH A. VERGILIO
Government of the United States of America - Agricultural Research Service
GILBERT J. GINSBURG A-76 Institute, MARY ANNE Q. WOOD Wood Crapo, LLC, JOHN
S. PACHTER Smith, Pachter, McWhorter & Allen, P.L.C., DOUGLAS L. PATIN
Bradley Arant Rose & White LLP, JAMES F. NAGLE Oles Morrison Rinker & Baker,
CLARENCE T. KIPPS Jr. Miller & Chevalier - General STEVEN L. SCHOONER The
George Washington University Law School GWU Law School Public Law Research
Paper No. 169 Public Contract Law Journal, Vol. 35, No. 1, 2005
Abstract:
Professor Emeritus John Cibinic, Jr. died on August 1, 2005. For three decades,
he taught at the George Washington University Law School. Throughout that
period, and until his passing, John made a huge and lasting contribution to the
literature and practice of government contracting. These short pieces, authored
by colleagues, students, and friends, offer a glimpse into the impact of
John’s full and productive life.
International
Cooperation and the Reform of Public Procurement Policies, by
SIMON J. EVENETT University of Oxford - Sad Business School; Centre for
Economic Policy Research (CEPR), BERNARD HOEKMAN World Bank - Development
Economics Research Group (DECRG); Centre for Economic Policy Research
(CEPR) September 2005, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 3720
Abstract: The decision not to launch negotiations in the World
Trade Organization (WTO) on three of the Singapore Issues in the so-called
July 2004 package provides an opportunity to revisit the knowledge base on
which proposals for further international collective action may be drawn.
This paper examines the available evidence on public procurement practices
in developing countries that could be relevant to further multilateral rule
making on state purchasing. Although there is considerable agreement on
ends (efficient, non-corrupt, and transparent public purchasing systems),
little information is available on means and, in particular, on the
effective and replicable strategies that developing countries can adopt to
improve their public procurement systems. A concerted effort to
substantially add to the knowledge base on public procurement reforms in
developing countries, through targeted research and international exchange
of information on implemented procurement policies and outcomes, is
critical to identifying areas where further binding multilateral
disciplines may be beneficial.
Hurricane Katrina’s Tangled Impact on U.S. Procurement,
CHRISTOPHER R.
YUKINS The George Washington University Law School GWU Law School Public
Law Research Paper No. 161 GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 161,
also published in West Group’s “The Government Contractor”, ,
Vol. 47, No. 34, September 14, 2005
Abstract:
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the U.S. Congress passed new exceptions to
U.S. procurement rules. The most important new exception, passed at the
recommendation of the Bush administration, raised the limit for micro-purchases
- essentially unregulated purchases - from $2,500 to $250,000. In practice, this
will mean that Katrina relief purchases may be made, up to $250,000 per order,
without any effective transparency or competition, and without honoring the many
socioeconomic requirements that are an important part of the U.S. procurement
system. This comment reviews that emergency legislation, and suggests that the
new law, by abandoning basic principles of sound procurement, raises real risks
in the post-Katrina relief effort, including risks of corruption and risks of
gross failures in best value procurement.
Uses and Abuses of O&M Funded
Construction: Never Build on a Foundation of Sand, Army Law., August 2005,
at 1, by Major Brian A. Hughes, Administrative Law Attorney, Personnel
Law Branch, Office of the Judge Advocate General, U.S. Army.
Introduction The Global War on Terror (GWOT) has required U.S.
forces to re-deploy from their Cold War garrisons to new battlefields
throughout the world. Commanders have quickly built small, temporary bases
to support military forces in underdeveloped countries worldwide. Some of
these bases are required for staging, logistics, and training, while others
directly support joint and combined combat operations. While U.S. forces
have had great tactical success in meeting new threats, the legal framework
for funding military construction has not adapted to the new security
environment. Maintaining the initiative in the GWOT requires agile forces
able to deploy, operate, and sustain themselves on short notice anywhere in
the world. Military construction funding, however, remains mired in a
multi-year budgeting cycle, with appropriations geared toward maintaining
the existing Cold War infrastructure.
Suspension and Debarment of Soldiers: Can We Do It? Yes, We
Can, Army Law., June 2005, at 33, by Captain Scott N. Flesch, Trial
Attorney, Contract Appeals Division.
Chief Warrant Officer Two
(CW2) Sticky Fingers, an aviation maintenance officer, is the approving
official for all government purchase card (IMPAC)2 transactions by his
department at Fort Irvine, California.3 Essentially, anything sought to
be purchased or procured using the IMPAC goes through CW2 Fingers for
review and approval. Due in part to the operational tempo at Fort
Irvine, compliance and oversight of the IMPAC program are lacking.
Sensing an opportunity for supplemental income, CW2 Fingers met
individually with three cardholders whom he trusted. Chief Warrant
Officer Two Fingers contrived a scheme for each cardholder to purchase
electronic items for personal use from stores that accepted the IMPAC.
Chief Warrant Officer Two Fingers collects the items (e.g., cell phones,
PDAs, digital cameras) and auctions them over the Internet. In exchange
for their assistance, CW2 Fingers kicks back fifty percent of the
proceeds from the sale of the goods. Before submitting a certified
consolidated bill for the purchases to the Defense Finance and
Accounting Service, CW2 Fingers alters and/or creates receipts to
reflect otherwise legitimate purchases and prevent detection. In the two
years of this ongoing conspiracy, CW2 Fingers makes $356,000 for himself
and his co-conspirators.
After an investigation by Fort Irvine’s
Criminal Investigation Command (CID), the government prefers charges
against CW2 Fingers to include: conspiracy, failure to obey an order,
larceny, and bribery. Chief Warrant Officer Two Fingers has eighteen
years of active duty service and plans to work for one of several
commercial vendors he established a relationship with as an approval
official when he retires.
FEDERAL SUPPLY SCHEDULES COMPETITION—“COMPETITIVE QUOTES ON FSS BUYS: HOLD THE PICKLE, HOLD THE MAYO-CAN YOU HAVE IT YOUR WAY AND STILL HAVE COMPETITION?”, by MAJOR DANA J. CHASE, 184 Mil. L. Rev. 129, (2005).
BEYOND ACCOUNTABILITY: THE
CONSTITUTIONAL, DEMOCRATIC, AND STRATEGIC PROBLEMS WITH PRIVATIZING WAR, by
JON D. MICHAELS, Washington
University School of Law, Washington University Law Quarterly, Vol. 82, No.3,
Fall 2004. A 127 page article discussing the contractors in the battlespace.
From the Table of Contents
I. INTRODUCTION
II. THE MODERN AMERICAN
EXPERIENCE WITH MILITARY
PRIVATIZATION
III. THREATENING THE NATIONAL SECURITY CONSTITUTION
IV.
UNDERMINING THE INSTITUTIONAL INTEGRITY AND STRATEGIC COMPETENCE OF THE
U.S. MILITARY
V. INTERNATIONAL LAW/DIPLOMACY HARMS
VI.CONCLUSION
Removing Federal Services Acquisition Barriers And Balancing Public and Private Interest—Task Force on Service Contracting, May 17, 2005. Established by Contract Services Association In Conjunction With Professional Services Council National Defense Industrial Association Information Technology Association of America. Also available on the Contract Services Association website at http://www.csa-dc.org.
Commentary on
the Acquisition Workforce, STEVEN L. SCHOONER, CHRISTOPHER R. YUKINS,
The George Washington University Law School
GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 147; GWU Legal Studies Research
Paper No. 147
Government Contractor, Vol. 47, Nos. 203 & 204, 2005
Abstract:
Recognizing the need to focus on the strategic management of the federal
acquisition workforce, the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP)
promulgated Policy Letter 05-01, Developing and Managing the Acquisition
Workforce. These two brief pieces discuss the policy letter and what it signals
to the acquisition community.
December 2011 Issue