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Monday, September 16, 2013

"Fundamental" reform changes procurement game

I always thought that, in principle, transparency was a central tenet of US procurement. But, obviously, only in a controlled and restricted sort of way.

PSC calls for 'fundamental' procurement reforms
The Professional Services Council is lobbying members of Congress and administration officials for “fundamental” acquisition reforms across government. Officials for the trade group, which represents government services contractors, said it’s too early to say how the bid protest process might be reformed, but industry leader joined in the chorus of complaints long echoed by government officials.

One idea floated by PSC would call on the government to release information to contractors that otherwise only would be disclosed during the discovery process of a bid protest or lawsuit. That way, contractors, armed with better quality post-contract information, might realize they have little to protest.

“It’s not until they get through that discovery process that they find out the information they’d need [to decide] if there’s really enough worth protesting,” PSC CEO Stan Soloway said.
One of these days, maybe, the protest process won't just be a game of Battleship.
Battleship (also Battleships or Sea Battle) is a guessing game for two players. Before play begins, each player secretly arranges their ships on their primary grid.

After the ships have been positioned, the game proceeds in a series of rounds. In each round, each player takes a turn to announce a target square in the opponent's grid which is to be shot at. The opponent announces whether or not the square is occupied by a ship, and if it is a "hit" they mark this on their own primary grid. The attacking player notes the hit or miss on their own "tracking" grid, in order to build up a picture of the opponent's fleet.

When all of the squares of a ship have been hit, the ship is sunk, and the ship's owner announces this (e.g. "You sunk my battleship!"). If all of a player's ships have been sunk, the game is over and their opponent wins.

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