The New Government Procurement Contractor Disclosure Rule: Opening Pandora's Box For The Inspector General

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The New Government Procurement Contractor Disclosure Rule: Opening Pandora's Box For The Inspector General

As you may recall from your high school study of Greek

mythology, it was an angry Zeus who ordered the creation of the

woman Pandora as part of a punishment for mankind. She was given a

large jar (later mistranslated as a box) and instructions from Zeus

to keep it closed. But, too curious, she opened it and all the

evils, ills, and diseases that mankind had not previously known

escaped. It is said, however, that at the very bottom of the box,

there lay hope (history has overlooked this aspect of the box's

contents).

"Opening Pandora's Box" has become synonymous with

exploring and disclosing subjects best avoided. The federal

government procurement regulators have recently burdened the

government contracting community with the requirement to open

Pandora's box in search of violations of the procurement laws.

Even the feds are candid enough to call the new Federal Acquisition

Regulation (FAR) disclosure rule unveiled last December a "sea

change." The rules are much more than that, however, and

unlike Pandora's Box there does not seem to be much

"hope" at the bottom of this box, only the hope that the

contractors can navigate the minefield of vague rules and traps set

out by the new rule. What's worse, these new requirements for

detailed and prompt confession of evidence of wrongdoing come at

the very time the government is vastly stepping up its contracting

activity and dollars in response to the economic crisis, and

expanding the powers of inspector generals to ferret ou...

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