Another broken promise: “I will finally end the abuse of no-bid contracts once and for all”
Graphic via Libertymanics/Zazzle
No corruption-scented no-bid contracts…except for Barack Obama’s own cronies, that is. James Rosen at FNC has the scoop:
The Obama administration this month awarded a $25 million federal contract for work in Afghanistan to a company owned by a prominent Democratic campaign contributor without entertaining competitive bids, Fox News has learned.
Despite President Obama’s long history of criticizing the Bush administration for “sweetheart deals” with favored contractors, the Obama administration this month awarded a $25 million federal contract for work in Afghanistan to a company owned by a Democratic campaign contributor without entertaining competitive bids, Fox News has learned.
The contract, awarded on Jan. 4 to Checchi & Company Consulting, Inc., a Washington-based firm owned by economist and Democratic donor Vincent V. Checchi, will pay the firm $24,673,427 to provide “rule of law stabilization services” in war-torn Afghanistan.
A synopsis of the contract published on the USAID Web site says Checchi & Company will “train the next generation of legal professionals” throughout the Afghan provinces and thereby “develop the capacity of Afghanistan’s justice system to be accessible, reliable, and fair.”
The legality of the arrangement as a “sole source,” or no-bid, contract was made possible by virtue of a waiver signed by the USAID administrator. “They cancelled the open bid on this when they came to power earlier this year,” a source familiar with the federal contracting process told Fox News.
“That’s kind of weird,” said another source, who has worked on “rule of law” issues in both Afghanistan and Iraq, about the no-bid contract to Checchi & Company. “There’s lots of companies and non-governmental organizations that do this sort of work.”
Contacted by Fox News, Checchi confirmed that his company had indeed received the nearly $25 million contract but declined to say why it had been awarded on a no-bid basis, referring a reporter to USAID.
Asked if he or his firm had been aware that the contract was awarded without competitive bids, Checchi replied: “After it was awarded to us, sure. Before, we had no idea.”
Checchi has donated to Team Obama, MoveOn, the DNC, and ActBlue, among other left-wing entities.
Flashback March 2009:
Obama promises to limit no-bid contracts
Says $40 billion could be saved every yearWASHINGTON – President Obama ordered an overhaul yesterday of the way the US government awards defense and other contracts, saying that more competition is needed to drive down costs and declaring that “the days of giving government contractors a blank check are over.”
Obama joined Senator John McCain, his Republican presidential campaign rival, and other congressional figures to promise taxpayers savings of as much as $40 billion a year, in part by limiting no-bid contracts.
Even in good economic times, contracting reform would be overdue in Washington, Obama said, but with the recession, “It’s time for this waste and inefficiency to end. It’s time for a government that only invests in what works.”
The president announced an executive memorandum that directs his budget director, Peter Orszag, to work with Cabinet and agency officials to come up by July 1 with a way to review existing contracts for waste or fraud.
By the end of September, Orszag is to come up with new rules designed to make it more difficult for contractors to cheat taxpayers by strengthening oversight and ending unnecessary no-bid contracts and “cost-plus” contracts that allow price tags to escalate. The new rules would also make some half-trillion dollars in federal contracts each year more accessible to independent contractors.
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Categories: Corruption,War
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Uh…yeah.
Liars.
I’ve got an idea…find a picture of Checchi right after going through chemo, you know, like you did with Carly Fiorino…to make him look like a nut.
Lose the Fiorino picture…it insults women that have gone through cancer treatment.
It’s lawyers!
No wonder why they got 25 million bux. Obrainless is just paying off campaign debts.
Let’s face it, people aren’t shocked by Obama’s lies – we’ve come to expect them. We would actually be shocked if he told the truth.
If you take an honest person of sound character and integrity, now that would shock everyone if they told a lie because they are expected to tell the truth.
I heard a retired Army guy tell this story – during the Vietnam war, if the NVA or Viet Cong blew up any of our stuff, they would have to come up with a dollar amount for the Pentagon. $25 million was no good, it had to be an exact number. So they would pick a number out of the phone book, and use the digits for a more “exact” number…
“Ladies and Gentlemen – well ok, no ladies – let me start with the concept of ‘no bid contracts’…”
Errah if we could train the Taliban to start killing lawyers instead of school girls I’d say it would be worth th 24M. That’s the only way I know to promote democracy.
What’s wrong with the picture? I think she look ok. Do you have a problem with her appearance?
Time to start the Animal Farm redefinitions:
“the days of giving government contractors a blank check are over….Unless your company, organization, or group donates heavily to the Democratic party and my campaign.”
They will claim it is a subsidiary of Haliburton.
You lie! -
I’ve gotta get in on this action.
I am starting my own company.
Chappi & Company Consulting will train the next generation of Afghani legal professionals the skills they really need. Like how to bill two clients for the same plane trip and how to effectively work in 7 minute 31 second increments so that you can round up to 15.
So now Afghanistan will be just as lawsuit-crazy as we are.
Chapotier, please tell us you’re not going there!
On a serious note. I can tell you first hand that there was a reason KBR (the old Halliburton Subsidiary)had a no-bid contract, and no it was not because of Chenney.
When the Iraq theatre first opened up KBR was really the only company that had all the pieces of the puzzle needed to go in and set up shop (this is not the case any longer).
When I was a contracter in Iraq (not with KBR) we relied on KBR for our food, housing, IT, Transportation, and mail. The company I worked for provided the military mechanics to work on their vehicles (both Army and Marines). This company did not have the logistics to house, feed, and trasport our personnel in and out of theatre, but we did provide excellent maintenance for the military (shown in the way that they continued to get open bid contracts for services and high ratings from the units we worked for). We would not have been able to perform our mission if we had had to deal with all the logistics too.
Now though, I believe that there are many companies that could provide these services (probably with better service)and this leads to greater competition leading to lower price tags on the contracts.
in otherwords, the only time there should be no-bid contracts is if there really isn’t anyone else who can efficiently do the job.
I think we’ll all need panoranic screens by the end of Obama’s
reignterm. That nose will keep growing and growing and growing and….A politician broke a campaign promise …
***YAWN***
America should be paying more attention to the promises this dirtbag has KEPT.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
The Blue Fairy: Now, remember, Pinocchio, be a good boy. And always let your conscience be your guide.
Ok Chap, if you want in on the action you have to follow these steps:
If you follow that strategy you will get a no0bid contract in no time.
Jiminy Cricket: [shouting] Pinocchio! So, this is where I find you! How do you ever expect to be a real boy? Look at yourself. Smoking! Playing pool!
And how to prevent your clients from paying for debates with WarEagle82.
I have the good fortune of working from home and (for the most part) choosing my own hours. But, were I to bill that time, it is amazing what you can fit under the “Administrative” billing code.
That is easy…write it off as an education expense.
Creative language skills, creative biling skills, go hand in hand, eh?
Truesoldier: I agree totally. There are real reasons why they are needed and/or used. They can be used to expedite the process, making things MORE efficient, not less. That means saving money and/or time.
I believe KBR won the Iraq no-bid because they had been designated as they no-bid contractor of choice for the military under Clinton. That designation gets renewed every so many years through a bid process. It enables the military to have a contactor on hand at all times for anything they need. I never understood why people complained about it. It’s common sense.
That said, I have no idea why this lawyer contract went no-bid. That seems a bit odd. Usually it’s for situations where there are only one bidder, or used to save time if the contract is critical, since the bid process is usually a year.
Why shouldn’t lawyers have sexual relations with clients?
Because they would be billed twice for the same service.
Odd: as Bambi’s nose gets longer his ears shrink. It there a medical explanation for that?
But On Topic: I guess No No Bid Contracts was canceled by No Lobbyist in my administration; that double negative thing.
Gettin’ schooled!
Obama: using U.S. tax dollars to spread Communism in foreign countries, by training their lawyers in the ways of “social justice” (Socialism/Communism).
They are providing “rule of law stabilization services” to Afghanistan? Can we get some of that over here?
But, but, but… this was a necessary no-bid contract, don’t you see?
Obama couldn’t even keep his promise about rescuing a dog from a shelter.
No problem at all with her appearance; she’s out in public recovering from cancer surgery…my problem is that she doesn’t really wear her hair like that, and the picture is exploiting an illness to make her out to be a feminazi.
If Huffpo used a pic of Tony Snow in recovery to show the evil of his right wing ways…most of the readers here would have gone ballistic.
Yeah…she looks great…but it’s set up as a cheap shot; the woman wears a mainstream do when it’s by choice.
You know, and I say this as someone inclined, and has in the past, read such intent into pictures MM has used…I just don’t see it.
I think if you were to look at the pic MM used for Hillary or Michelle Obama or Helen Thomas, you would see an obvious difference.
Bigboy,
Was it a current picture, in other words, as she appears at this time? Was it taken at the event in the article? I personally don’t know, maybe you do, but if it is a recent picture it seems to me you are just tilting at windmills.
Talking about hairlines is depressing. Talk about something uplifting such as comb overs
@ flmom: lol, I thought about the poor teleprompters. (Turn to the left) Whack! (Turn to the right, with difficulty, I might add) Whack! Surely SNL can come up a skit…
this is the problem in d.c. each team d and r, give their cronies the goods as payback for bribes. toss the scum out and get some new young blood who will be less savvy, and everyone watch the eddie murphy movie, “the distinguished gentleman”.
Of course, this was a necessary no-bid contract.
Hope is not a plan; not all change is good. WE are the civilian national security force! “It’s only corrupt if the Republicans do it.” The resistance is here; the resistance is now! RESIST!!!!!!!
ECS
Liar Liar
Pants on the ground on fire.
Whatever. The woman looks fine. Stop implying that she doesn’t.
The picture even shows a nice smile.
Ahh hope and change in action. Obama hoped he could change the amount of money being put in the Democrats coffers from the money being put in the Republican coffers.
Isn’t any wonder why these politicians, aides and other political appointees come to DC without a lot of money and retire/leave as multi-millionaires and the taxpayer is saddled with trillions in debt.
Has anyone kept track of Obama’s lies and broken promises during 2009?
We’d have to limit the list to unique lies, because if we counted every instance of the same lie, such as his promise to be “transparent” and to “end politics as usual”, the count would exceed the number of jobs saved in 2009. Oh wait, that would make the number negative because the claim of jobs saved is another of his lies.
Cheapseat #45 – Yes….exactly like that movie, “The Distinguished Gentleman”. Favors, favors, and more favors from the Ds and the Rs. Regular Joe goes to Washington, 50 years later returns as a billionaire. As for me, I.AM.SICK.OF.IT.
I meant….50 years later returns HOME as a billionaire. And, yes, I’m still sick of it.
Chap – Don’t do it – no legal consulting for you…remember what Shakespeare said about lawyers.