“The Department of Health and Human Services is not just failing its agency and contractor customers but also, once again, demonstrating why ‘the government’ gets maligned as wasteful, insular and uncaring.”
“With its decision to end its assisted acquisition services through its Program Support Center, HHS is putting more than $1 billion in contracts at risk. It’s hanging large and small agencies out to dry — ranging from the Defense Department to the Environmental Protection Agency to the Office of Special Counsel — by canceling contracts and giving them little time to prepare for the changes. And it is withholding payment to potentially hundreds of small and large contractors, putting some at risk of closing down or facing employee layoffs and additional contract costs.”
“At the same time, HHS is paying tens of thousands of dollars in prompt payment penalties to those same contractors for avoidable mistakes, inching ever closer to what experts would call waste and abuse…”
“Robinson and four other industry sources, all of whom requested anonymity because they either are still waiting to get paid by HHS or because they still have work before the agency, say the rationale for closing down the Program Support Center’s most successful offering was based on one flawed reason after another…”
“Four executives remain on administrative leave after almost a year: Al Sample, the well-respected head of PSC; Bill McCabe, the chief financial officer, and the director of Financial Management and Procurement Portfolio; Patrick Joy, the head of PSC’s contracting activity; and Donald Hadrick, the chief supervisory contracting officer. HHS continues to pay their full salaries at the Senior Executive Service or GS-15 levels and benefits, costing the government more than $600,000 a year. Meanwhile, HHS still searches for a reason that will stick for why these highly-respected executives were embarrassingly walked out of their offices last spring…”
“The decision by HHS not to offer any insights or any further comment is part of the problem with this entire situation. The lack of transparency has been stunning, to the press, agencies and vendor partners.
..””Sources say it could take three-to-five years for PSC to fully shut down its assisted acquisition services, and the organization may have to award another contract to clean up the mess its executives created by not understanding the situation.” Read the full article here.
Source: HHS’ shutdown of assisted acquisition services remains painful, wasteful – By Jason Miller, March 2, 2020. Federal News Network.
