Government Contracting History Question

Started by jvanhorne · Jun 17, 2010 · 4 replies

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jvanhorne
Jun 17, 2010 · 15y ago
Original post
Having run into a current situation where a government subcontract basically acted as a middleman, adding no value but just pulling off 10% of the price, I thought to look up the origin on "ten percenter" which I vaguely recall was used at some time in the history of US government contracting for this kind of middleman. Well, after an internet search which turned up quite a number of unrelated uses of the term, I haven't been able to find the government contracting history that I thought was there. Anyone else have a better recollection?
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formerfed
Jun 17, 2010 · 15y ago
Are you perhaps thinking about the covenant against contingent fees described in FAR 3.404?
c
civ_1102
Jun 17, 2010 · 15y ago
Are you thinking of the DFARS clauses prohibiting excessive pass-through charges? See DFARS 252.215-7003 and 252.215-7004.
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jvanhorne
Jun 17, 2010 · 15y ago

Are you perhaps thinking about the covenant against contingent fees described in FAR 3.404?

Yea, I think that was it. I discovered my problem - memory. It's not "ten percenters" but "five percenters." I searched on "covenant against contingent fees" and found a good article on the history which is substantially intertwined with the history of lobbying. Here's the link: http://tinyurl.com/38rvt2g

Thanks for the suggestions.
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Brooke
Jul 16, 2010 · 15y ago
I recall in the late 70?s or early 80?s the DAR changed requiring all small purchases to be setaside for small business. In response, a slew of entrepreneurs popped up as a pass through for large business products. These businesses were called ten percenters, because they bought products from large business added 10% and sold them to the government. That was a nice little trip down memory lane.