MILNEWS Readers Comment on CF Procurement Process

EDITOR'S NOTE: Got some good rants out of a recent MILNEWS piece on CF procurement. Thanks to Rob Bonnett, Lorne Warawa and Hugh O'Donnell for letting me share their insights with everyone. As usual, comments & feedback always welcome at milnewstbay@yahoo.ca .

From: abonnett@mts.net

Globe and Mail:  Ottawa seeks bids on military aircraft

Here goes another $500 million.

The first question that one should be asking is:

Where are our med lift helo's?

Answer: In service with the Dutch army in Iraq. (Isn't that special.) So of course the same gov't that sold them wouldn't want to procure the same item (does this sound somewhat familiar?) Fucktards! (sorry for the vulgarity, it just slipped out).

The second question one should ask is: How much money will be siphoned off

to politicians and their cronies coffers to make the "deal"?

Answer: Alot, but don't worry you stupid Canadian taxpayer, the gov't will make sure that that money will be paid back to the "winning" bidder in the contract price. Sounds fair doesn't it?

Bitter and sarcastic ... oh yeah!

But if you read the JTF2 article explaining their expedited procurement process and then read how in this article that the same process can't be used for the whole CF I think that you too could become a little jaded.

Instead they'll run another multi-million dollar sham competition, change the rules to support the "appropriate" candidate (who will still lose, a la AI AWM .338 and NH90), delay until the last possible minute, then delay again, then pick a winner that won't be available for another three years and after production delays the CF will finally get the equipment after it is thirty years out of date.

sigh! end of rant.

From: warpig@sympatico.ca

I agree that the procurement system is completely out of whack, but that fault lies solely on the civilian bureaucrats who need to justify their jobs, not the government. The Defence Civilian component is so entrenched that it out-commands some aspects of our chain of command now. It is no help that the military supply system is a befuddled collection of dolts at the higher end. Now, those Chinooks were some of the first to fly, and are now too old for duty. That's the Dutch's problem. Ours is not replacing them back when we got rid of them.

As for JTF procurement, they completely sidestep the civilian prossess where they can, but have butted heads repeatedly with it when it comes to big ticket items like vehicles and base procurement. So they are not free of the restraints: when they want a better C-9 handgrip no problem, but a stealth helicopter, no. Those are just speculative points: I have no details.

Sure the procurement will go less than spectacularly because of the governmental system. So long as the civvies, your parents and family, allow and even encourage it, and have no understanding of the way the military operates, you will have government meddling. Nobody really cares, except us. Who's fault is that? Where are all our retired Generals and RSM's now: in procurement contracting jobs, and where is their voice on the subject: strangely quiet except to flog their companies product!

Hummmmmm. And on top of that, only the Military spends on Capital projects of that magnitude for so limiting a final product. It isn't the Confederation bridge we are buying but 30 to 50 helicopters!

The whole defence game is a lose/lose proposition. How did those old Chinooks win us any wars? Only if they go to war is their value met, and then we are gonna pay out big time anyway. War is the bane of all good things, and has no beneficial cost to it.

Even in peace, we have to pay, with all that money going down the drain. Of course then, a inherently bad thing just corrupts all it touches, and the procurement system is the result. Profiteering by companies on the back of the need of the people to be ready for war. It's lose/lose.

And just to get my two cents in, if you think that an Alberta based party would do any better, I need only point to Ralph Klein's Conservatives and their whack-a-mole strategy of wasting billions by firing and hiring, crony-isms galore and budget befuddles to illustrate the fact that the New Conservatives are no shining knights to the rescue. I would be some impressed if they got into government and really got rid of the problems, but realistically it isn't gonna happen.

From: hodonnell@draega.net

My $0.02 is that Wa is basically right. The procurement system is a built in slush fund for pols in almost every democracy. The dictatorships are usually worse. Even at the Civic level the pols manage to wrangle dollars out of simple things, or go for "pride" preservation efforts like Mayor Sam of Wpg and his transit plan (the same as Murray's, but worse unless you listen to his pet members).

We'll get the new helos when we're told to by our NATO or NORAD master(s), and not before. War is inherently wasteful, and nothing is too good for our boys - and that's exactly what those boys'll get - NOTHING.