No Comparison, CSIS Costing Method is the Superior Option

In the debate over sourcing federal work, there is one point where all sides agree: the government does a poor job of estimating its own costs when comparing them to private-sector costs of performance.

Now, just in time to inform this debate, which is again surfacing as Congress considers the National Defense Authorization Act, the Center for Strategic and International Studies released an important report identifying enormous gaps in current cost-comparison methodologies. Moreover, the CSIS report proposes a new taxonomy for making these comparisons that is more comprehensive and source-neutral than any method available to the government today.

Great Moments in Contracting History: We Built This City

May 3 marked one of the greatest moments in contracting history: the anniversary of the incorporation of Washington, D.C., a city designed and built almost entirely by federal contractors, according to the GovWin blog.

GovWin, an online publication of PSC member company Deltek, reports the following:

The first contractor in Washington was surveyor Andrew Ellicott, hired to set the boundaries of District of Columbia, and who placed boundary markers (some of which are still visible today) at every mile point in 1791-92. His assistant, African-American Benjamin Banneker was the first minority contractor.