More details emerge on the Trump meetings with Oracle CEO Safra Catz discussing the upcoming multi-billion Pentagon contract. In related news, the NYPost ran an ad attacking Bezos, Amazon and the possibility of Amazon getting that contract. The ad was place by a group called ‘Less Government’ which is run by conservative Seton Motley. This extreme politicization of the procurement process is unusual and could further hinder the functioning of our democracy and our government.
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This type of “advocacy” (Seton Motley’s NYPost ad) is a first in my 20-plus-year career in federal procurement. It threatens to catapult the business of government squarely into the center of politics. While some argue that companies regularly politick procurements, this generally has been done through professional business channels, sometimes employing congressional interaction, but for the most part remaining within the procurement process. The unspoken gentlemen’s agreement not to overtly employ political means for procurement ends has kept government buying relatively on-track so as not to further delay what everyone agrees is an excessively lengthy process.
If President Trump takes the bait, breaks with tradition, and intercedes in this procurement to sway the selection against a political enemy, or if DoD pulls back the procurement because of a political hailstorm, what’s next?
For those of us in the business of aiding the government to improve and advance procurement systems, this would be a worst-case scenario. Will a presidential administration truly pit itself against U.S. companies? Will so-called advocacy groups be able to blow up major procurements merely by popping up a website and running a tabloid ad playing upon charges of political bias and conspiracy?
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However, the prospect of direct political weaponization of procurement would throw a huge monkey wrench into the functional business of government. In fiscal 2016, our federal government spent $461 billion through contracts. Politicization of procurement introduces the possibility of political and personal vendettas – not to mention innuendo and “fake facts” –affecting the expenditure of billions of taxpayer dollars. It’s a coward’s way out simply to say, “It’s all broken and corrupt anyway.”
Unless, of course, the goal is to cripple the operations of our democratic government. Certainly, there are those who revel in every failure or misdeed and point to them as evidence that our government is broken and incompetent. I won’t catalog here the immense professionalism and patriotism of most of those serving to procure the goods and services our government needs to accomplish what Congress has instructed it to do. Their achievements are not wiped out by the fact that there are always mistakes and failures in every large human endeavor. Always.
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Oracle chief executive Safra Catz criticized the bidding process for a huge Pentagon cloud computing contract in a private dinner with President Donald Trump on Tuesday, complaining that it seemed designed for Amazon to win, according to people familiar with the matter.
Trump heard her out and said he wants the contract competition to be fair, but made no indication he’d interfere in the bidding, the people said. Oracle (ORCL, +0.46%), where Catz shares the CEO title with Mark Hurd, is competing with Amazon (AMZN, +1.62%) for the contract, a point she didn’t emphasize to Trump, the people said.
The president has repeatedly attacked Amazon and its chief executive, Jeff Bezos, and the multi-billion dollar Defense Department contract for cloud computing services is a potential opportunity to hurt the company.
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