re: #449 ausador

I made a really good living doing contracts for the GSA and it doesn’t always work like that. Giving them a “Not to Exceed” price while telling them that you will only mark up materials by 15% and Labor by 10% works quite well.

Your giving them a maximum price for the job that will almost always be lower than any of the competitors fixed bids. Your also saying that you will probable charge them less than that. They get to see all your receipts for materials and the time sheets of your employees. You charge them what it cost you to do the job plus the agreed mark up percentages.

If your not greedy you can earn a decent living doing that, government work made up about 65% of my contracting business. I didn’t rip them off and I never had to jump through any of the layers of hoops you are talking about. Yeah, there was always a shit load of paperwork but that is true of any commercial job.

Have you ever done any government contracting or are you just repeating what “you heard” from other people badmouthing the government procurement process?

My remarks come from an experience I became aware of with a company that was attempting to get a government contract.

Long story short, they took the (requested) plans and turned them over to a competitor who built the identical product at 75% more than the originator. The company went to court (some of ideas used were patented) and sued the government. In the end and after a really costly legal expense, the original company got the contract- but only after they agreed not to sue the govt or his competitor.

These practices are rife in the defense industry.