You can go to THIS LINK to watch the ANC hearing on Alaska Native Corporations' Contracting Preferences. The hearing started at 10:30 a.m. Alaska time.The witness list:
Panel 1
- Ms. Debra Ritt [view testimony]
Assistant Inspector General for Auditing, Office of Inspector General
U.S. Small Business Administration - Mr. Joseph Jordan [view testimony]
Associate Administrator for Government Contracting & Business Development
U.S. Small Business Administration - Mr. Shay Assad [view testimony]
Acting Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition & Technology
U.S. Department of Defense
Panel 2
- Ms. Sarah Lukin [view testimony]
Executive Director
Native American Contractors Association - Ms. Jacqueline Johnson Pata [view testimony]
Executive Director
National Congress of American Indians - Ms. Julie Kitka [view testimony]
President
Alaska Federation of Natives - Mr. Mark Lumer [view testimony]
Senior Vice President, Federal Programs
Cirrus Technology, Inc - Ms. Christina Schneider [view testimony]
Chief Financial Officer
Purcell Construction Corporation
9 comments:
Thanks for the link.
Alaska native corporations are pleading for their lives before the senate committee. All the Alaska advocates have been excellent, but I think Sarah Lukin did an especially fine job. Good job to everyone else too.
what % actually goes to Natives? how screwed are all the white people who run them when lots more blacks, Hispanics , and women want to in on sole. source $$s?? Politically, only 109,000 native voters vs. US minorities w/o Ted to help? this program hurts Natives progress in the long run. gig is up
I'm not taking a position on what I want the outcome of these hearings to be, but I don't think there has been adequate oversight of the program, just like many that grew remarkably during the Bush years.
Ted years, not Bush years
The live stream was great. The Alaska Native women were impressive. I was proud of their knowledge, commitment and composure. The Corps are not perfect, but they are good for Alaska. The survival of the corps is best for Alaska. If they do not survive, what will become of the lands? This is money from Fed contracts that is (mostly) coming back to Alaska. My children have greatly benefited from the scholarships and other cultural aspects as well as a small check in the mail (from a corp. permanent fund).
Meanwhile, this is all a red herring. The real culprits in sole-source and no-bid contracts are the big guys---Haliburton, Wackenhut, etc. This is a sorry system of pitting the small guys against each other at the 7-11, while the big guys rob the bank.
Sen. Mark Begich, Thank You for your support of Native 8a at the hearing yesterday and for pointing out the numerous ways the program has and will continue to benefit ANCs.
It seems Native corps. are coming under scrutiny simply because they've been so successful/profitable.
A 2009 independent study by the Institute for Social and Economic Research found that 70% of Native corp. dividends are returned to their shareholders. In 2005, federal 8(a) contracts provided 3,170 jobs for Native shareholders, 9,750 jobs for Alaskans, and $413.6M in Alaska payroll.
The Native 8(a) program is efficient, competitive and cost-effective AT NOT ADDITIONAL COST TO THE TAXPAYER.
This government program is in place to honor a trust relationship the U.S. Congress established with ALL Native Americans. It provides economic opportunities in exchange for hundreds of millions of acres of Native lands and is one of the few government programs that actually works as intended.
When will Congress get it right? The means to a cost savings for taxpayers is to fire the 1M+ (out of 4.9M) lame federal employees who provide no value and no effort in their "civil servant" positions. There are far too many federal employees who use their federal paycheck as a free handout. Most of their duties are given to contractors. The ANCs are getting contracts because the government agencies find that they take the least effort to award. Why do we blame the ANCs? Where are the government contracting officers who oversaw selection processes and chose to approve the awards to these ANCs? Where is the accountability? My issue is we taxpayers pay TWICE to do the job and the government shifts blame. GAO knows there's a problem with efficiency but nobody fixes it. What's up with that?
[Reply to someones above post]
what % actually goes to Natives? how screwed are all the white people who run them when lots more blacks, Hispanics , and women want to in on sole. source $$s??
[End Quote]
"Alaskan NativeCorp and Tribal Corporation owned" means they have to own more than 51% of the 8a company. In recent years the ANC's and other companies have been picking up anywhere from 60-70% of the 8a company when signing the firm up for 8a.
In some cases some of the Alaskan Native Corporations own 100% of the 8a firm.
So to answer your question about how much of the money makes it back to alaska your answer is in simple Corp ownership/Profit division. If the 8a firm has 2mil in Net Income then 70% (or whatever % the tribe owns) is given to the Alaskan corp. These financials are audited.
Your next statement about Blacks/Whites etc seems all over the map. If you are white and have issues with 8a sole sourcing and having 0 white 8a category then perhaps that can be a new initiative rather than throwing it into the Alaskan Native Corp debate.
if you are saying that other Minorities are not given the same preferential 8a sole source rules then try not forgetting that individual 8a firm $$ goes to a single individual- NOT a tribe of socio-economically repressed people.
As a small business owner with a lot of family who benefit from the program back home in Alaska nothing makes me more proud than being a business partner with the Alaskan tribal company that my family uses for social programs. I get to give back!
Good luck to you and hope that you truly find what you are angry about and make that energy work for you.
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