Never let a crisis go to waste

[jon-nyc]

In a highly unusual move, White House steers 100MM no-bid FEMA contract to its preferred company.

https://www.propublica.org/article/the-white-house-pushed-fema-to-give-its-biggest-coronavirus-contract-to-a-company-that-never-had-to-bid

[Aqua Letifer]

I worked for FEMA for a short bit. The bidding process can take a long time. Giving them the full benefit of the doubt, I think you could make a case that this at least does speed up the process quite a bit. Maybe that was the thinking here?

[Mik]

No, Aqua. It simply MUST be a scam/scandal. Nothing else will do.

[jon-nyc]

Being in emergency mode and giving out no-bid contracts isn’t the highly unusual part. It was the White House itself stepping in to award it.

[Aqua Letifer]

@jon-nyc Yeah that's definitely unorthodox. But FEMA does absolutely suck at streamlining this sort of thing. They just don't do that, basically ever. It's almost always convoluted and silly. So yeah, I wonder.

My bet is that the true reasons are just as convoluted, just as silly, not primarily Machiavellian.

[jon-nyc]

I don’t doubt FEMA sucks at a lot of things, or this in particular.

But there is a difference between normal bidding process and no-bid contract awards in an emergency. Your experience was with the former.

If the White House were to come in and expedite things it seems to me it would be about streamlining the entire procurement process.

Not redirecting just one of many contracts to a new vendor.

[Mik]

Depends on the priority.

[Copper]

The president has been announcing order quantities, for PPE and ventilators daily, for weeks, by state. And the press hung on every word, eating it up.

These are not normal times.

These orders are not routine orders.

[Jolly]

@jon-nyc said in Never let a crisis go to waste:

I don’t doubt FEMA sucks at a lot of things, or this in particular.

But there is a difference between normal bidding process and no-bid contract awards in an emergency. Your experience was with the former.

If the White House were to come in and expedite things it seems to me it would be about streamlining the entire procurement process.

Not redirecting just one of many contracts to a new vendor.

My experience is with both, albeit at a state level. Considering what all's going on right now and how much money is being flung through the air, I'm more worried about throwing twenty-five million at the Kennedy center than $100M contract for something that is needed.

Hey bud there's a war on...