Bidding on Defense Contracts

[SkiSalomon]

So reading the recent Blackwater thread has made me start thinking about defense contracts, particularly security and police training types of contracts. Now I am not interested in bidding on these contracts personally as I am in no way qualified to execute any of them. My interest lies in how they are awarded, advertised, and made available to competition.

I realize that Blackwater, et al have developed vast political connections and references based on previous work, but are the majority of the contracts that they are being awarded publicly advertised and competetive in nature? If so, where would 'joe businessman' go to find these contract advertisements? I am a huge fan of employing people that have an existing successful working relationship but it seems that there are tons of smaller companies out there getting into the game. How are they able to compete with the larger defense contracting firms?

My questions are specifically related to U.S. government contracts as I would imagine that contracts with private companies for similar services are acquired in a much different manner. However, I would be interested in information about that as well.

[digrar]

Don't know how it works in the states, but in Australia Government contracts are put out to tender, they advertise in the Major Newspapers and invite tenders from people able to fill the contracts.

[playtym]

Don't know how it works in the states, but in Australia Government contracts are put out to tender, they advertise in the Major Newspapers and invite tenders from people able to fill the contracts.

In South Africa the initial procedure is pretty much the same, except the contact usually goes to the company offering the biggest bribe! p-)

[digrar]

I wouldn't be naive enough to say that doesn't happen here, our corruption and nepotism might be a little more subtle here though. p-)

[playtym]

I wouldn't be naive enough to say that doesn't happen here, our corruption and nepotism might be a little more subtle here though. p-)

Sure. I have no doubt that the only diffenrence between our current government and the previous one is that the previous bunch were smart enough to keep all the skulduggery that went on out of the public eye.

[SkiSalomon]

Oh, I have little doubt that the system in the US is not without its flaws and corruption within the system. I'm pretty certain that these contracts are publicly available at least to appear competitive, I just have no idea where this listing is. I've found a number of defense contracts but I havent seen any of the security or training type of contracts.

[2Sheds_Jackson]

I used to have a hand in awarding gov't contracts. Most, but not all, are put out for open bids. In fact, I couldn't go buy a friggin' roll of CAT-6 cable unless I had 3 bids in hand...unless I wanted to spend 3 days writing up a "sole source justification" letter.

That being said, there are a number of requirements that must be met in order for a vendor to be eligible to bid on any gov't contract - they have to have a vendor # assigned - and to get that, there is a registration process that checks out a company (financing, insurance, etc.). Once registered, the company can bid on jobs, and register in the GSA database under any category they like (i.e. "lan/wan supplies, security, systems integrator").

Be advised that it's best to list the company under the wife's name, as preferential treatment is given to female & minority, and "small businesses" - in fact generally, if there are two companies bidding on the same job and the bid is the same, the female/minority etc. business must be awarded the contract. That's why you'll find just about everything listed as a "female owned business" etc. , and large corporations constantly split off into smaller subsidiaries to keep the illusion of being a "small" business.

http://www.ccr.gov/ is a good place to start.

[SkiSalomon]

My apologies for taking so long to get back to my own thread, I've been bogged down with work. I appreciate all of the input given in this thread.

^Thanks for the link to CCR. I've poked around on it a bit but Im pretty sure that Im missing a lot since I do not have a company to register.

Is there any way for an average joe to view a listing of security/police training contracts offered by DOD and other similar depts. What about UN/NATO/etc?