In recent months I have heard and read different stories about companies’ expectations in doing business with the government.  Now our esteemed leader here at Skyway calls me the “grumpy” contracting officer, which is not far from the truth because I am the one who doesn’t sugar coat things. So here I am about to say some things the contractor community may not like. The government spends vast amounts of money and many companies see this as a great opportunity for them to make money and make their business successful.  But the government doesn’t owe you a contract!

I have experienced in my many years as a government contracting officer a general attitude that the government is not a customer and the government should be happy with what it gets. I have seen that attitude from small companies and major defense contractors.  I spent 4 years battling with a major defense, Fortune 500, contractors over a program and its performance.  At the end of the day, I summed up the problem for the Navy captain in charge of the program office as “they do not see us as a customer and we should take what they want to give us”.   That did not sit well with him and it has never sat well with me.

I have always been surprised that many companies treat contracting officers and the government in ways that would lead to losing customers in the private sector.  First, I see a general attitude that government people are not professionals and we don’t really care about our jobs.  I find that to be totally untrue. I worked many a late night to get contracts awarded.  I was always mission oriented as were all my colleagues in the program office and contracting.  I am a professional, highly trained in my field. I had an unlimited warrant, which was a sign that the government trusted my judgement.  In the course of a year I had hundreds of millions of contracts obligated under my signature.

Secondly just because you want to sell stuff to the government doesn’t mean the government has to buy it.  You are not entitled to a government contract, regardless of being one of the many small business categories that are out there.  In every one of those categories there are many companies all trying to win those same contracts.  Today it is very rare that a small business doesn’t have, especially in the service arena, lots of competition.  The government bidding process is designed to allow everyone equal access and fair treatment.  The rules are clear and the contracting officers follow them.  To think that contracting officers “play favorites” in selecting awards is just not true.

Lastly contractors owe the government their best performance. I found it always interesting when I asked for consideration for poor performance, usually missing delivery dates, that contractors where surprised and/or offended.  Contract terms should be honored and while I realize the government can be its own worst enemy when it comes to getting the best performance out of a contractor, usually by changing things, the contractor needs to be focused on making the government customer as happy as it would a customer in the private sector.  You fail to do that and CPARS ratings will be bad and you will find yourself losing contracts based on that poor performance.  The government has many choices and most contracting officers use them.

I ask you to respect the process and the people who work it.  Government people do their best and I suspect they do better than some companies that we do business with on a daily basis. (insert name of your cable or cell provider…LOL).