Fixing the Nation’s “Broken System”
by Anna Lafferre
Over the past few weeks, we’ve heard President Barack Obama talk a lot about government transparency and accountability. Building on his campaign promises, Obama created a website where Americans could track recovery act spending, began a White House blog and opened up his websites to comments from citizens.
This morning Obama took steps to act on another of his campaign promises – cutting wasteful spending. In a speech at the Old Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House, Obama outlined steps to reform what he called the United States’ “broken system” of government contracting. First, he instructed Office of Management and Budget director Peter Orszag to work with cabinet officials and agency heads to develop new contracting guidelines by the end of September. He also pledged to stop outsourcing services that should be performed by the government and open up the contracting processes to small business. He plans to stop no-bid and cost-plus contracts that “run up a bill paid by the American people.” Finally he reinforced his pledge to strengthen oversight to maximize transparency and accountability. He believes these reforms will save Americans up to $40 billion each year.
These announcements followed last week’s White House meeting on the nation’s financial future where officials and lawmakers informed Obama aides that the contracting process had to be handled in a better way. Obama agreed, stating this morning that part of his deficit-reduction plans include reforms in how government does business.
Obama explained that over the past eight years, government spending on contracts has doubled to over $500 billion. He believes that massive cost overruns, fraud and the absence of oversight and accountability are to blame.
“There is a fundamental public trust that we must uphold. The American people’s money must be spent to advance their priorities, not to line the pockets of contractors or to maintain projects that don’t work,” Obama said. “Recently, that public trust has not always been kept.”