Reinventing procurement compels vendors to rethink the process of getting and performing contracts. The evaluation of past performance, if vigorously implemented, will revolutionize the bid or no-bid decision. Once an offerer won a contract, it became the program manager's de facto partner. If the bid price was too low to permit proper performance, the contractor could count on contract changes to help. This relationship may be ending.
Tight budgets mean no funds are available for program bail-outs.
Without extra money to make up for mistakes, programs might fail. The trend is likely to accelerate. Clever federal agencies will write contracts that shift risk and responsibility to contractors. Performance-based standards, a credo of the reinvention revolution, helps, especially if the standards are judgmental and subjective. Success has many fathers, but failure has none.