I can only talk about what I have experienced. I have worked with government employees and contractors for the last 18 years. The government employees may be the most inefficient people I have ever worked with. Once the program moves to a private contractor things start moving. That’s when time and cost savings usually become important. If there is a design issue and it has to go back to the Government then it is a disaster. The private contractor can usually approve a solution in a few days or weeks. The government can and will take months to years. Every week I meet with government engineers and planners and usually walk out of that meeting with multiple meetings already set to go over what this meeting was about. The government guys never want responsibility. Honestly I’m shocked any thing ever gets done. Let’s talk about design costs. The government guys will sole source all kinds of stuff where the private guys will use suggested sources so that there are same fit form function options. The government engineers frequently complain they don’t get paid what private guys do. I would say it’s because you are getting lesser quality results from the government teams.

Either way it is never good on a personal level for anyone to lose their job. I hate to see it. But the truth is, something has to be done. If as a taxpayer we are not getting a good return on our investment we have to make changes. Those changes are going to have impact. What we have to do is think long term. You can’t fix something as big and inefficient as our government by taking little nibbles. It is to big for that to work.