Thursday, October 22, 2009
The Obama White House insists it is still committed to awarding stimulus contracts on a fixed-price, competitive basis—even though much of the money spent so far has not been distributed in this manner.
According to a review by Government Executive of contracts posted on Recovery.gov, nearly half of the $16 billion awarded by the federal government has been in the form of noncompetitive, non-fixed price contracts. A spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget said $7.8 billion was awarded without bidding and specified price because many of these contracts were from the Department of Energy for environmental management and clean up.
For instance, $1.27 billion was given to Savannah River Nuclear Solutions LLC to clean up the former uranium production site in South Carolina for nuclear weapons. Ch2m Hill Plateau Remediation Company received $1.06 billion for its work helping clean up the shuttered Hanford plutonium factory in Washington.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Half of Stimulus Contract Spending Falls into Risky Categories (by Elizabeth Newell, Government Executive)
Non-Competitive Non-Fixed-Price Contract Awards (Recovery.gov)
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