Sometimes The Government Unknowingly Wastes Money

For the past 30 years I have been involved with the making and selling of products to the U.S. government. Most of my sales have been through intermediary companies that in most cases have GSA (Government Services Administration) contracts.

The government generally has a bidding process, and quite often specifies the product. The lowest bid gets the order. However, there are times that a contracting officer is given information from a person in a unit requesting a particular product and the contracting officer is told that this is the product and there cannot be any substitutions. I recently read one of these published solicitations put out by a Navy unit. The solicitation called for clothing and sleeping bags. The sleeping bag requested was to perform at 0 degrees and be insulated with water repellent down. The model name was new to me so I researched it. Turns out the bag is not made any longer. Not only that, but I had never heard of the company. The Navy contact was informed of this situation so the person who told them about this bag found a substitute—also a down bag—but this one was from another obscure company that I had never heard of. It happens to be located in Colorado and when I spoke with them I was told they were a five year old company. I asked if they had a factory but was told it was a small work shop. I was not surprised.

I looked at the bags they make on their web site. All insulated with water repellent treated down. The model specified was also for 0 degrees use. What I first noted about this bag is the lack of a hood. Then as I read more about it, it seems not to have a bottom which, when I spoke with them, was confirmed. There are straps of some sort that will allow you to secure a ground pad. I did inquire as to how they developed their temperature capabilities, I was told that the owner used the bags and got feedback from customers. I have taken all what I was told with a grain of salt. I am more than sure these bags will not perform in the field, maybe inside a house.

What I have noted about the GSA contract holding companies that sell to the military, specifically, is that the sales staff is, as a rule, ex-military. These people are so serious about making sales they will more often than not offer products that simply do not perform. This is especially true of sleeping bag products. When they are asked for a sleeping bag for a specific temperature capability the sales person does not know the answer and offers what their company has available. In some cases the military person may see a product that sounds great and ask if they can get it. The sales person may or may not know about the product being asked for, but that does not matter. They will try to get it. Even if they happen to know it is not a good product, they will still want to make the sale.

During the course of these many years that I have been involved with sales to the military, I have seen virtually all of the bags that have failed that are still either made for the military according to their specifications, or are a copy of those bags as well as other companies who have claimed to make bags for the various temperature ranges. Then there is this law known as the Berry Amendment. It basically states that the product has to be made in the USA using components made in the USA. Every single down bag made in the USA is filled with down that comes from either China or Europe. Down is not a byproduct of any domestically raised ducks or geese. As for the fabric, it also is not produced in the USA but Asia. It should also be noted that most of the down sleeping bags sold as "made in the USA" have the shells of the bags made in China. The down is blown into the bags here, so one could say the bags are somewhat fabricated here. This is a very misleading tactic.

Those involved in making the budget for the USA only give the monies to the various spenders. The spenders way down the line in the military units on many occasions waste the money because they do not have knowledge of the products they are asked to buy and they chose, in my opinion, not to learn about the product to make the best possible purchase. All they know is the lowest price gets the order. The end result is that the government unknowingly wastes money.