Jerry McGinn: Feds, Contractors Should Explore Ways to Increase Gov’t Responsiveness, Efficiency

Jerry McGinn, executive director of the Center for Government Contracting at the George Mason University School of Business, said during a FedTech-hosted roundtable that both public and private sectors should work together to accelerate innovation efforts and attract entrants to the GovCon space.

He made the remarks in a panel discussion with three former federal information technology leaders about the impacts of the most recent government shutdown and lessons agencies could learn from such an event.

“It is critical for government and industry to find ways to make the government more responsive and efficient,” McGinn told FedTech in the question-and-answer session posted Thursday. “If government runs better, there’s less reason to create future budget battles that lead to shutdowns.”

McGinn noted a lapse in federal appropriations disrupts procurement and business processes and that smaller contractors are significantly affected when agencies halt operations.

The other panelists were Jonathan Alboum, chief technology officer of Veritas Technologies' public sector business, Cohesity CTO Steve Grewal and Fortalice Solutions CEO Theresa Payton.