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US Procurement expert questions Pentagon's savings strategy

16 Aug 2010

Source: Government Executive

Defence Secretary Robert Gates' plan to cut funding for service support contractors by 10 percent annually during the next three years isn't likely to save much money and could disproportionately hurt small businesses, said a former top federal procurement executive.

The Defence Department hasn't provided any data to support the argument that government employees are a cheaper alternative to contractors, said Robert Burton, a procurement attorney and partner at the law firm Venable LLP in Washington.

Unless the department intends to eliminate functions those contractors now are performing, any savings associated with the cuts is unlikely, he said.

Burton was the top career federal procurement official in the White House Office of Federal Procurement Policy from 2000 to 2008. Before that, he spent more than 20 years as an acquisition attorney at Defence.

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