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It's not "broken" ... it's that way for a reason. And that reason is so it can be steered to the people who are 'supposed' to get the work. What the Sunlight

by Kadin 17y ago

It's not "broken" ... it's that way for a reason. And that reason is so it can be steered to the people who are 'supposed' to get the work. What the Sunlight Labs people don't really understand is that they never had a chance in a million years of getting the contract. That's why the other contractors have been so friendly to them; they were never seriously in the running. If they had actually been competition, they would have gotten a much more hostile reception. That's not to say that what they did was a waste of time, but there's no such thing as a fair and open competition when government contracts are concerned. They're all rigged to a certain extent, and there's always more than meets the eye. If they (or any other company) are serious about winning work as a prime contractor, they need to build up a Rolodex of people who can make phone calls on their behalf. The best way to do this is to start off as a subcon, and work up from there.

akeefer 17y ago
I would contend that the point of the RFP process is to make it harder to rig. That doesn't mean that the vendors themselves don't try to influence the RFP such that it makes them look better, or that the people issuing the RFP don't do that themselves. But it's overly cynical and a misunderstanding of where the RFP process came from to say it's there to rig the process: it's there because the bidding process has been "rigged" since time immemorial, and it's an attempt to make things more transparent and harder to rig. It's certainly not totally successful at that, but it's unfortunately often better than the other sorts of processes people use for major contracts (like no-bid contracts, handshake deals, etc.).
- anamax 17y ago
  > I would contend that the point of the RFP process is to make it harder to rig. Whose point would that be? The point of an RFP is pretty much determined by its author. It can be to minimize said author's work (by cut/paste from previous RFPs), to ensure that the right people get the work, to give the author cover if the project blows up, etc.

by Kadin 17y ago

akeefer 17y ago

I would contend that the point of the RFP process is to make it harder to rig. That doesn't mean that the vendors themselves don't try to influence the RFP such that it makes them look better, or that the people issuing the RFP don't do that themselves. But it's overly cynical and a misunderstanding of where the RFP process came from to say it's there to rig the process: it's there because the bidding process has been "rigged" since time immemorial, and it's an attempt to make things more transparent and harder to rig. It's certainly not totally successful at that, but it's unfortunately often better than the other sorts of processes people use for major contracts (like no-bid contracts, handshake deals, etc.).

anamax 17y ago
> I would contend that the point of the RFP process is to make it harder to rig. Whose point would that be? The point of an RFP is pretty much determined by its author. It can be to minimize said author's work (by cut/paste from previous RFPs), to ensure that the right people get the work, to give the author cover if the project blows up, etc.