Contracting and Ethics

Introduction

Contracting is a large business that involves billions of taxpayer dollars. A commitment to ethics in government contracting is imperative to ensure the correct usage of taxpayers’ funds. In order to avoid the appearance of violating any ethical codes, contracting personnel should avoid conflicts by not offering or accepting gifts, refusing bribes, and not disclosing sensitive information. It is crucial that contracting personnel abide by these rules, because even the emergence of violating them could easily tarnish the trust with taxpayers.

To assist the government in this effort there is an agency whose function is to investigate how the federal government expends taxpayer dollars. This agency is known as the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). The goal of this organization is to improve the performance and ensure accountability of the federal government for the benefit of the American people (GAO, 2009). The GAO is best known for their studies, reports, and analysis of federal programs. One particular case to be discussed involves Aetna Government Health Plans (AGHP). Aetna was protested by losing bidders which lead to an investigation by GAO.

The conflict of interest was based on the fact that Aetna had hired a former TRICARE employee who possessed knowledge of Health Net's performance that could offer Aetna a competitive advantage in the bidding process. Supposedly the Government was not aware of this person's involvement in this contracting process. The GAO also documented several other errors the Tricare Management Activity (TMA) committed in the procurement process, such as the risks with Aetna’s plan to hire a proportion of Health Net’s workforce at lower rates, the high past performance rating without considering that the past performance was undersized compared with the size of the Tricare contract, and of course the fact that they failed to protest the hiring of a former Tricare Official. It was a little unclear to exactly what role the former Tricare employee played in the process, but nevertheless there was the appearance of a conflict of interest.

Opinion

I highly believe that organizations have the right to hire any individual that may bring experience and knowledge to their company. However, in a case such as this, that individual should not be advising or participating in contract actions where that organization might gain an advantage over another company. After having reviewed the GAO findings and decision in this case there certainly was the appearance of a conflict of interest in my conclusion. According to the Federal Acquisitions Regulation (FAR), the general rule is to strictly avoid any conflict of interest or even the appearance of a conflict of interest in Government-contractor relationships (FAR, 2012).

Therefore, in my educated opinion