Using Data Analytics to Detect Bridge Contracts

Symposium PresentationApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Using Data Analytics to Detect Bridge Contracts

Excerpt from the Proceedings of the Nineteenth Annual Acquisition Research SymposiumBridge contracts—temporary contract actions that enable continued contractor performance until a replacement contract can be awarded—are not controlled and are suspected to be overused. While facilitating continued mission achievement, bridge contracts reduce competition, result in higher prices paid, and increase transaction costs. Yet, few agencies have a means to identify bridge contracts, meaning the extent of their use is unknown. Thus, most agencies do not identify, analyze, and monitor the risk associated with achieving statutory competition objectives. This research develops a data analytic methodology to identify bridge contracts, which can quantify the magnitude of the problem and serve as a starting point to enact policy to mitigate usage.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Incentive compatibility and conflict resolution in international river basins: A case study of the Nile basin

10.1029/2005WR004238Water Resources Research422WRER

Evolving Discourses on Water Resource Management and Climate Change in the Equatorial Nile Basin

Transboundary water resources management in the Equatorial Nile Basin (EQNB) is a politically contested issue. There is a growing body of literature examining water-related discourses which identifies the ability of powerful actors and institutions to influence policy. Concern about the effects of future climate change has featured strongly in research on the Nile River for several decades. It is therefore timely to consider whether and how these concerns are reflected in regional policy documents and policy discourse. This study analyzes discourse framings of water resources management and climate change in policy documents (27, published between 2001 and 2013) and as elicited in interviews (38) with water managers in the EQNB. Three main discursive framings are identified which are present in the discourses on both subjects: a problem-oriented environmental risk frame and two solution-oriented frames, on governance and infrastructure development. Climate change discourse only emerges as a common topic around 2007. The framings found in the water resources management discourse and the climate change discourse are almost identical, suggesting that discursive framings were adopted from the former for use in the latter. We infer that the climate change discourse may have offered a less politically sensitive route to circumvent political sensitivities around water allocation and distribution between riparian countries in the EQNB. However, the climate change discourse does not offer a lasting solution to the more fundamental political dispute over water allocation. Moreover, in cases where the climate change discourse is subsumed within a water resources management discourse, there are dangers that it will not fully address the needs of effective adaptation