Pub K
The Futility of FAR Reform: It’s About People, Not Rules
The Nash & Cibinic Report – Matthew J. Fleharty, a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force, argues that the “Revolutionary FAR Overhaul” alone cannot fix our federal acquisition system. Regardless of what is written in the FAR, those words will require people to read, analyze, interpret, and apply them. How well people do those things is what ultimately determines acquisition outcomes. So, unless we make substantial changes and investments in the education and development of our people, the contracting workforce, the FAR overhaul will merely be another acquisition reform effort in a long line of Sisyphean “successes.” But that boulder will inevitably roll back down the mountain