Barbaccia: Non-technical officials award bloated contracts because they misunderstand technology problems
Greg Barbaccia · The Person Who Runs HR For 2 Million Federal Workers · Oct 2, 2025 · at 25:58
US CIO Greg Barbaccia explains how a lack of technical expertise among federal contract approvers leads to excessive vendor spending and contractor sprawl.
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“We are missing that crucial talent in the government. This is why the people who are charged with approving contracts oftentimes do not understand the technology problem deeply. They don't understand what is an appropriate solution. They don't understand how long it should take to solve that, how many people we need to solve it, what type of person we need to deploy at the problem if we're speaking about contractors. This is how these large beltway bandits, as they call them, or systems integrators, get these indefinite term contracts that don't make any sense when you're trying to apply the problem.”
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