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Originally Posted by cj2112
The logistics alone make managing hundreds if not thousands of small projects very difficult, similar to coordinating multiple subcontractors doing the same type of work on the construction of a large building (like a large hospital) Although I will concede that this might not be a bad idea with a couple tweaks.
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I think there might be a happy middle ground - I think that the extreme case of giving a ton of work out to a very few companies, who conspicuously have serious ties to the current administration is dangerous...and that having every contractor/subcontractor/dude-with-a-bucket running around fixing each little thing independently is a pain in the ass. I'm just not sure that the extremes are the only two choices we have.
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Originally Posted by cj
So you would take one recent project, that your only knowledge (correct me if you're actually involved in said project) is what you've been told by a third, fourth or possibly even a 5th party who may or may not have an agenda? I would agree that some of the billing questions and methods tend to cast some ugly light in KBR's direction.
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Well, I'll be the first to admit I'm hamstrung in my news sources, much like everyone is pretty much all the time. However, as far as I know the accountability issues haven't been answered by the administration. I'll have to go and look for it, but I seem to recall Rumsfeld being put on the spot about this stuff, and despite a lot of handwaving and smoke and mirrors, not being able to actually answer the question. In my opinion, this is essentially the same thing as "conflict of interest" issues in the legal sense, but we don't seem to have the same ethics laws applied here. I don't understand why not. There are tons of $$$ at stake, and that
always brings out the worst in people.
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However the only way I can see to do some of the work in question in NO, is on a time and materials basis. You could possibly put the labor rate out for competitive bidding, but to actually put the entire project out for bid is just not practical.
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I can understand having the project in two phases: immediate reaction and medium - long term rebuilding. Immediate reaction is no-bid get-in-there and clean up the initial problems. Long range goes out competitive. When I say immediate, I mean first couple of weeks - while you're finding survirors, setting up temporary shelter and getting the dead bodies out. After that, it's going to take a long time to rebuild, no matter what. It's going to have work stoppages, no matter what. Contractors will be contractors, I don't care what the little insignia says under the tag on their shirt that says "Buddy" or "tiger" or whatever. I think that the claims that it's going to massively more efficient with a huge company aren't necessarily true...they can be just as inefficient as tons of small companies, for somewhat different reasons. Things like TPS reports, for instance.