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williamwchuang t1_j7kngmy wrote

Reply to comment by KingofthisShit in MTA spent twice as much on Second Ave subway consultants as it did on its construction by NYY657545

The federal government should give the DOJ an extra $10 billion a year just to root out public corruption and corruption in public contracts on both the state and federal levels, and in the administration of government benefits programs. I bet that would make huge returns on investments.

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FuglySlut t1_j7l02xb wrote

Is anyone breaking laws? A great deal of the "waste" is due to following regulations. More govt to reduce govt is a little sus.

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planning_throwaway1 t1_j7lbr42 wrote

yeah. so frustrating reading any comments thread about infrastructure

one of the chief reasons stuff is so expensive in the US is the insistence on using consultants and private contractors for literally every little thing

and to control costs, all these laws and regulations were created, very reasonable sounding, that were supposed to prevent govt waste and corruption

things like being forced to always take the lowest bid, always bidding on the end of every single contract, blind bids, etc

in a sane world, if you had a contractor who did a great job, you'd keep them. in the land of govt contracts, they're often forced to re-bid for the work, and often lose out. no way for them to lower their bid to match, they're just out. never mind that the new consultant is gonna burn 6 months of cash just getting up to speed, we're saving!

or on literally any infrastructure project. if someone bid honestly, i guarantee you the planners/engineers etc could tell you they're the ones to go with. but in reality, a shitty contractor can underbid on purpose, the choice is completely out of the hands of anyone competent, and once they have the job what is the govt going to do? build half a tunnel? switch contractors halfway through?

the entire system has been designed to fail, all because our main assumption about public employees is they can't be trusted to make good decisions. that private industry always does it better, and to prove that we're going to take away all agency from those awful government bureaucrats and give it to private consultants... at 3x the cost.

and if you are a competent govt employee, this system is almost certainly going to drive you out - why work somewhere where nothing you do matters and everyone hates you?

How does Paris build so much, so cheap, with heavily unionized 1st world labor in a densely packed, old, catacombs riddled city? They let boring public bureaucrats handle the planning and engineering, and then when they're ready to build they keep their contractors on a tight, tight leash. That's how

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hak8or t1_j7l4g5b wrote

I think the issue here is what is defined as corruption.

I instead would favor, on a federal level, an agency created solely to find inefficiencies in our government on a micro scale (not macro).

Make their department be funded by a minimum of a few hundred million a year, give them a huge swath of authority to levy fines on an individual person basis rather than agency/department basis, and let them keep 10% of all fines given, one third of which gets contributed to their employers pension funds, one third to the agency itself, and one third given to all tax payers via a seperate line item on their tax return, so the agency is very visible to everyone.

And when they find actual corruption, give them a mini DOJ so they can throw actual criminal charges at individuals themselves, rather than wait for the DOJ.

And lastly, the agency would only receive oversight from a very constrained group of people, be it the president himself, or the Supreme Court justices, or similar, meaning don't let congress touch it.

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