Burgum Steers Monument Repair Back to His Favourite No-Bid Contractor

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum confirmed the same contractor awarded a prior no-bid deal will handle Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool repairs, citing their “fantastic job” on previous work.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum confirmed the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool repairs will go to the same firm that previously received a no-bid contract from his department.
Burgum praised the contractor's prior performance as justification for bypassing a competitive bidding process once again.
The Reflecting Pool was damaged and requires restoration work overseen by the Department of the Interior.
No-bid contracts have drawn sustained criticism from government accountability advocates as potential vectors for waste and favouritism.
Burgum was among the officials who championed the original streamlined contracting authority that made the first no-bid award possible.

The Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party regrets to confirm that the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, one of the nation’s more photogenic public assets, will be repaired under a no-bid contract awarded to the same company that benefited from the Department of the Interior’s previous departure from competitive procurement. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum made the announcement himself, describing the contractor’s earlier work as “fantastic” — a characterisation the Party neither disputes nor requires in order to note what has occurred.

The Party wishes to draw the reading public’s attention to a straightforward sequence of events. Secretary Burgum advocated for, and operated within, an administrative framework that expanded no-bid contracting authority at Interior. That framework has now produced a second no-bid award, confirmed by Secretary Burgum, directed to a contractor of Secretary Burgum’s stated preference. The mechanism he fed has now delivered a meal on his own doorstep. The Party records this as routine platform operation and expresses no surprise.

Accountability observers have long noted that no-bid contracting, however defensible in individual cases, removes the institutional friction specifically designed to prevent a single official’s enthusiasm from substituting for market competition. Secretary Burgum’s enthusiasm, the Party notes, was always the point of concern — not the contractor’s tile work.

The Reflecting Pool will, presumably, be restored to its customary reflective condition. The Party remains committed to the eating of faces and has no plans to revise this commitment. We wish Secretary Burgum a prompt recovery and a competitive bidding process at his earliest convenience.