A Washington Post article entitled If Spending Is Swift, Oversight May Suffer; Plan's Pace Could Leave Billions Wasted by Robert O'Hara says it all about federal stimulus spending and its impact on federal contracting.

Mr. O'Hare states, "Under the terms of the stimulus proposals, a depleted contracting workforce would be asked to spend more money, more rapidly than ever before, while also improving competition and oversight." This is an almost impossible task. Some members of Congress further assert that they will increase the federal acquisition workforce, a laudable goal.

The federal acquisition workforce has to be strengthened, but putting trained acquisition specialists in place takes way too long, and it is only a baby step toward the solution. The real solution is complete reform of the acquisition process including new legislation and electronic contracting. Similarly, the medical field requires massive amounts of records and procedures which can only be tamed with information technology. Yet, it's a catch 22; we don't have the right acquisition system to buy the technology to make the acquisition system actually work.

In addition, we would need Congress to think big and act creatively because they control the acquisition process. However, it appears that Congress may not focus on the acquisition system anytime soon, and the stimulus money needs to be spent in a matter of 5 - 6 months.

Congress, the executive branch, and federal contractors have known that the federal procurement system needs reform for years just like we have known about the inefficiencies of our medical record system for years. They both work, but at what cost? We have been through two recent cycles involving contract abuse in Iraq and the contracting chaos surrounding Katrina. Both were followed by hand wringing and urgent calls for reform and oversight, and now we are about to start yet another cycle.