should government contractors work for cost.?

Question

why do government contractors make a profit .WHEN we need a school built why does the contractor make huge profits instead of just covering the wages of workers and making a modest profit for themselves for runnig and organizing the work .
Its like giving a bounus to a welfare recipient for collecting a check.
My taxes should go to increase profits for contractors.is what we are talking about.
THEY could pay wages and benefits to workers make a descent salary provide a school and not charge the tax payers more then the cost .
I have a problem giving away more tax money then need for a project .LIKE the big dig 700% over buddget millions in profits claimed by contractors paying investors tax dollars i send in each year .
NON profit--- they run things like an accounting service submit bills and collect money to pay for materials and payroll at a modest fee.

the profit made is the pay you get for doing the work .your job is what the profit is .i do not want contractors to work for free but pay themselves adequitly for the job without attaching a profit so they continue to provide there services to the community and not just provide the capital once they make a few million they become money manegers them selves and no longer work becoming a drain on society.

Answer 1

Maybe the contractors should be government employees- no profit?

Answer 2

I don't believe they should. The contractors still have a right to make a profit even if it is the government contracting the work from them. In a perfect world, contractors would lower their markup and profit margin when hired by the government to ease the burden of the taxpayer but in our world the opposite is true. I would also point out that ever since we switched the budget process from Zero Base Budgeting to Current Services Budgeting, each Bureau has an incentive to go over budget every year. With ZBB, Congress started every agency at zero funding then determined what they would appropriate to that agency for the year. Agencies had to decide priorities with the money alloted. With Current Services Budgeting, each agency is assumed to "need" at least what it had the previous budget and then a generous addition goes on top of that to compensate for inflation. Thus when agencies go over-budget, they can claim to be underfunded and get an ever bigger slice of the pie. As long as we are using CSB, overruns on idiot projects like the Big Dig and the Bridge to nowhere will continue.

Answer 3

Government contractors are civilians companies doing a job for the government. Should we just go ahead and make them slaves? You question makes absolutely no sense. This is a capitalist government and bids are sent out, received and then selected. Who are you to tell a company what they can make and what they can't? If you think non-profits are really not profits then you are sadly mistaken. Go and take a course and then come back and ask an intelligent question.

Answer 4

Not in our free enterprise capitalistic world.
Awards go to the lowest bidder.
Govt. recoups excessive profits after the fact.
This is why we have a little known branch of Govt. called the renegotiation board.
Renegotiations are top secret so not to embarrass the companies doing work for the Govt
Govt. work is not easy work and so increased costs are sometimes justified.
Low level company workers never know about renegoiations and consequently think our Govt. is gullible and should be renamed uncle sugar. .

Answer 5

Why would anyone want to work for the government if they weren't able to make a profit. Competition will lower prices. If there were better oversight of projects there would be less waste. People need to be more involved in what their government does.

Answer 6

Would you work for room and board? That's what the slaves did on all those plantations. That's all you need.

Big Dig was a special project of the senior senator from Massachusetts. It opened in December 2003. The ceiling just collapsed (7/12) and killed a woman and injured her husband.

Answer 7

They should make a profit, otherwise there would be no incentive to do the work. But thier operations on the project should be regularly audited.

Answer 8

If you can't make a profit doing government work, nobody will do it. Then, the government will have to do all the work themselves, and we KNOW how inefficient THAT will be.

Answer 9

Working for costs would encourage no bidders. Why go to the bother if there is no incentive. Profit is the incentive...

Answer 10

They make huge profits because we elect a leadership that is willing to hire them.