Within the area of public management, procurement is something of a neglected stepchild — especially considering the amount of money spent and the significance of contracting for accomplishing the government’s work.
And post-award contract management is a stepchild of a stepchild, getting scant attention even from people engaged in contracting.
Yet the ultimate success or failure of a contracting effort is very dependent on how well the government manages the contract after it is awarded. Most contracting failures are significantly failures of contract management. In its 2015 annual report on the Performance of the Defense Acquisition System, the Department of Defense, citing a 2014 report by the Institute for Defense Analysis, noted that weapons systems “started during the reforms of the mid-1990s — which encouraged a more ‘hands off’ and ‘let industry do its job’ approach and included a significant downsizing of the DoD acquisition workforce — produced significantly higher funding cost growth than other regimes.”
Keep reading Mr. Kelman’s blog at: https://fcw.com/blogs/lectern/2016/01/kelman-post-award-contract-management.aspx
