When ‘compliance’ should be a dirty word

I recently saw a new report from the Department of Defense inspector general titled Defense Organization Officials Did Not Consistently Comply With Requirements for Assessing Contractor Performance. The IG reviewed past performance report cards prepared at four defense non-warfighting commands, including the contracting organization for the Defense Information Systems Agency.

Reading the report, I was reminded of the kinds of worries about IG investigationsthat I raised in a recent blog post. Reading the report, it turns out that report cards were submitted for every contract where one should have been, but this fact is passed over with scarcely a mention, and certainly with no kudos to these organizations. The IG noted that about a quarter of the reports from three of the four commands were submitted late; the performance of the command that submitted all reports on time was simply left out and not mentioned! (The decision rules here seems to have been the opposite of what your mother told you: if you don’t have something bad to say, don’t say anything at all.)

Continue reading: https://fcw.com/blogs/lectern/2017/03/kelman-cost-of-compliance.aspx?s=fcwdaily_140317