You can’t bite the hand that feeds you.

So I pass your neck of the woods when I’m coming to or going from work, or going to Walter Reed.

The TETS system was good as a weight to put in the back of the HMMWV for use in heavy snow to help prevent fishtailing. Utter useless piece of equipment that remained in my lab for quite sometime taking up space. I could not use it to test anything. A COTS system would have been cheaper and more effective. There, I said it, it looks like I will be target of Mantech now.

“George Pedersen of Fairfax-based Mantech International Corp. has given Brian Moran $50,000. Pedersen has also contributed substantially to other Virginia candidates, including Kaine. He gave $81,000 in federal contributions last year, including donations to Murtha, Davis and another member of the defense appropriations subcommittee, U.S. Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.). Mantech, which focuses on systems engineering and software development for national security systems, is awaiting a $2.5 million earmark requested by Jim Moran”

I know this company, now please keep my name secret here, but these guys have produced some equipment for the military that I have used or try to used. It was unwieldy and a worthless paperweight. I have always wondered why this company was awarded the contract to produce this system. This company struck me as the type of company that had some sort of inside track on funding or the beneficiary of cronyism.

To all, do not be fooled the Government and the DoD are in no shortage of cronyism and nepotism and it is sort of like the good old boys club that Achance talks about up in Alaska.

I am a big proponent of Government Support Service contracts and that includes Systems Engineering. We provide a valuable service to the military and the DoD and we are performance based. That is we can have our contract terminated for failure to comply with the SOW and contractual obligations. Now the Government employees are not tied to this type of performance based criteria. It is not impossible to be fired for non-performance to requirements when you are a Government civilian during probation or internship period; however, once you are granted the outside track their is very little trimming of the dead weight. Again, I am a big proponent of Government contractors that rely on performance based contracting competition to supply Government support services. That include omnibus support service contracts e.g. CEOSS.

You do have to wonder, when I see earmarks for items that are slated for acquisiton by a line item placed in a spending bill, I wonder who paid who to get this contract.

Lastly, I have always wondered why the GAO goes after the executive departments of the DoD but fails to examine the goings on of Congress. Especially, when things like this show up which show what we call in the contracting word a conflict of interest in violation of the FAR.

But I’m not at all thrilled about his brother possibly being VA’s next Governor.