Organizational Conflicts of Interest

The Washington Post has a story about organizational conflicts of interest. Here's an exceprt:

The case offers a rare glimpse at one of the consequences of the government's unprecedented reliance on contractors to help federal agencies: Consultants sometimes gain insider knowledge and help draft rules that could benefit their own bottom lines, procurement specialists said.

Because the acquisition workforce has not kept pace with the massive expansion of outsourcing in recent years, such conflicts rarely come to light. When they do, the government often is not able to address the problems, specialists said.

"This is the top of the iceberg," said Daniel Guttman, a procurement specialist at Johns Hopkins University who brought the case to the government's attention. "The government has basically never publicly reviewed whether the conflict of interests rules work. They don't."

Thanks to Ellen Peterson for drawing this story to our attention and Eric Rishel for highlighting its significance.