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GCN Home > March 6, 2000 issue

FEDERAL CONTRACT LAW: Joseph J. Petrillo

Government’s use of Web has winners and losers

The federal government deserves high marks for rather quickly making available via the Internet a lot of information that had been difficult to find. Now all manner of laws, regulations, directives, instructions, guidance and commentary is available to anyone with access to the Web.

Some government Web sites display a sense of humor, or at least whimsy. The IRS, of all places, styles its site as the front page of a tabloid newspaper.

Unfortunately, the Defense Department has cut public access. DOD sites were a favorite target of hackers. It seems that no electronic intruder feels complete until assaulting a Defense site. This factor, amplified perhaps by the military’s fear of too much openness, led some DOD sites to bar those outside the defense community.

Another government function, procurement, is a natural for the Internet. Good contracting depends on quick, accurate communications and open dissemination of information. Here, however, the feds have racked up as many failures as successes. In particular, when the government pursues a unique solution instead of building on private-sector successes, it does not fare well.

Some efforts are too new to judge. The jury is still out on whether so-called electronic malls aimed at federal procurement deliver results for the government buyer.

The ultimate in fast-track procurement is a purchase made by credit card from an Internet site. But these buys are too numerous and too small for effective scrutiny, so no one knows if they represent good value.

Publicizing contracting opportunities seems like a killer app for the Internet, but reality falls a bit short. Before cyberspace, notices of upcoming procurements and actual contract awards appeared in print in the Commerce Business Daily. This tabloid, crammed with entries in agate type, landed in bidders’ mailboxes eventually, but sometimes too late to do them any good.

Missed opportunity

More recently, the CBD has gone electronic. But numerous exemptions sap the usefulness of this publication. Orders under indefinite-quantity contracts and Federal Supply Service schedule contracts need not be posted—in advance or even when placed. Thus, the CBD is of little help in an area where it could do the most good: enhancing competition for small buys.



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