Re: Vendor bashing? Sort of.

[willett@cbnewsl.cb.att.com (david.c.willett)]

From article <SRCTRAN.94Sep18090214@world.std.com>, by srctran@world.std.com (Gregory Aharonian):
> 
>>Greg, let me get this right, you wanted to charge for an hour of time to
>>come in and make a sales pitch? Well that's a novel way of doing business
>>(well perhaps one should say it would be novel if it worked). Charging
>>for sales pitches, well, well, that's the second strangest thing I heard
>>about today (the first is too long a story ...)
> 
> Robert,
> 	Obviously you are unfamilar with DoD contracting procedures, which
> is why you fail to appreciate how business-suffocating many Ada policies
> are.  I did not mean (and if you bothered to read what I posted) to demand
> to be paid for making a sales pitch.  Maybe that's what's expected at NYU,
> but not here in Boston. I think your knee-jerking is getting out of control.
> 
> 
> 	Each and every hour of a DoD contractor's employees day has
> to be accounted for to some contract (unless he is a non-peon on overhead).
> This is much like lawyer's who have to bill every hour of their day to one
> of their clients.  Thus for someone at a DoD contractor to goto the library
> for an hour to look up information on Ada, that person has to charge that
> hour to some contract, or he or she won't be able to go.  For if each hour
> is not accounted for to some contract, and legitimately, then the DoD auditors
> from the DCAA (or whatever it is called now) get real nasty (well only if 
> they detect lots of inconsistencies).
>

Greg,
	Let's get some perspective on this, okay?  The DoD operates under
a set of regulations called the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FARs).
These regulations specify auditing standrards, accounting practices, 
authority for work rules, etc.  Companies are expected to implement 
practices that comply with the FARs and various auditing bureaus 
within DoD (e.g. Defense Contract Administration Agency -- DCAA --
and others) monitor contractors for compliance.

Note -- For old timers, I'm just pointing out the first couple 
     layers of a Bysantine system here.

As far as I know, DCAA's only interest is to see that the US Govt. 
isn't charged for things that were not to its benefit.  That is 
to say, that charges against a contract which could not be supportted 
under that contract's Statement of Work (SOW) are not allowed.  
To the best of my knowledge, the DCAA and the DoD have no interest 
in accounting for every moment of a worker's time, only in getting 
good value for their money.  This means (upper case for emphasis here)

	THE CONTRACTOR, NOT DOD, IS THE ONE INSISTING THAT 
	EMPLOYEES BILL THEIR TIME TO A CONTRACT.

In other words, Greg, your beef isn't with the DoD, but with the 
contractors you are trying to sell to.  It is, in fact, the 
very "understanding of economics" that you claim DoD lacks,
in action.  These companies don't think what you have to 
say is worth enough for them to "spend their own money" 
to listen to you.  Seems to me you don't have much of a case.

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Dave Willett          AT&T Advanced Technology Systems
                      Greensboro, NC USA

When short, simple questions have long, complex answers -- your 
organization's in trouble.

	Adapted from "In Search of Excellence"