At the risk of sounding like Comfy1, ("Say fellas my cellular phone has a flashlight app! Pretty cool!") I want to rant about government contracts.
This week I encountered the fourth time I have witnessed a government entity wanting to purchase my goods where they asked if it is OK with us to work the purchase through one of their "approved vendors". They explain that there is too much red tape involved to certify our company as a government approved vendor. The process would take weeks, even months and since our ownership demographic does not include minority or women we may not be approved anyway. Then they would be required to gather three separate quotes to ensure they are purchasing the thriftiest possible goods.
So we work with one of their approved vendors. Oh yeah, the approved vendor tacks on a processing fee for their troubles of being the middleman. This is a rather thick loaf of irony in my opinion as the rules cooked up by our lawmakers to ensure a fair economy are so easily circumvented, costing the taxpayers extra cheese. The rules were designed to prevent this very practice.
From my taxpayer perspective this is pretty fucked up. From my salesman perspective it is pretty sweet. I am sure there are plenty of mega rich people laying around on yachts due to lucrative pork barrel contracts with government entities. But it just surprises me a bit that the buyers have no qualms about the obvious deception. I guess when everybody breaks the rules over and over, the perception of right vs. wrong is clouded and it is simply the way business deals are made. Welcome to America!
This week I encountered the fourth time I have witnessed a government entity wanting to purchase my goods where they asked if it is OK with us to work the purchase through one of their "approved vendors". They explain that there is too much red tape involved to certify our company as a government approved vendor. The process would take weeks, even months and since our ownership demographic does not include minority or women we may not be approved anyway. Then they would be required to gather three separate quotes to ensure they are purchasing the thriftiest possible goods.
So we work with one of their approved vendors. Oh yeah, the approved vendor tacks on a processing fee for their troubles of being the middleman. This is a rather thick loaf of irony in my opinion as the rules cooked up by our lawmakers to ensure a fair economy are so easily circumvented, costing the taxpayers extra cheese. The rules were designed to prevent this very practice.
From my taxpayer perspective this is pretty fucked up. From my salesman perspective it is pretty sweet. I am sure there are plenty of mega rich people laying around on yachts due to lucrative pork barrel contracts with government entities. But it just surprises me a bit that the buyers have no qualms about the obvious deception. I guess when everybody breaks the rules over and over, the perception of right vs. wrong is clouded and it is simply the way business deals are made. Welcome to America!
