Update On NASA Office Of STEM Engagement's New Support Contractor
Keith’s note: Sources report that the NASA Office of STEM Engagement (OSTEM) has been moving all of its contracted work to MORI Associates Inc. under a contract awarded on a sole source basis via JSC under a new umbrella contract called Communications, Outreach, Multimedia, and Information Technology (COMIT). OSTEM AA Mike Kincaid has had previous experience working with MORI when he was at JSC.
This sole source contract is being awarded to MORI for all OSTEM work even though MORI was not the existing incumbent for all of this work at NASA OSTEM and NASA HQ. Meanwhile sources report that Mike Kincaid’s brother Scott Kincaid, who works for Salesforce, a cloud-based Internet provider, has sat in on official NASA OSTEM meetings with NASA staff. The current plan, according to sources, is for NASA OSTEM to move its online platform work to … Salesforce.
I have received no feedback or commentary on my reporting from Mike Kincaid or NASA PAO – so one has to assume that they do not contest any of it. Sad. NASA is the Earth’s pre-eminent space agency with a vast reach oozing with softpower and inspiration – one that is truly global. As such, with an extra pot of money in the FY2022 budget request, you’d think that NASA would want to obtain the best contractor support possible to enable its education and outreach efforts. Guess again. Instead, they go for easy, unimaginative procurement solutions and grab the low-hanging fruit instead. I am rather sure this is not what Joe Biden had in mind when he coined the whole “Build Back Better” thing. Quite the contrary.
interesting, JSC PAO I think has used Salesforce to track their engagements, planning events and stuff it might have started when Mike was in charge. now I am no ethics expert (though I did just help repair the lunar greenhouse in this years ethics CBT) but that seems a bit fishy. keep digging Keith.
I dont know about this case or Salesforce but if he is using a relative at work in a position he is paying for, it certainly appears like its an impropriety. He is supposed to avoid that but over the last 15 years a lot of these cases were not dealt with.
But as far as shutting down long serving, experienced offices, companies, academic institutions, and firing capable people, replacing them with inexperienced, unknown, neophytes or offices/groups who wondered why they were given the role, Kincaid has done that repeatedly and its a prime reason some of us were pleased they moved him out of JSC (finally).
He shut down the Media Resource Center composed of very senior, very experienced, very hard working people. Initially he claimed it was no longer necessary. After a short time they tried to replace a couple of its functions but with relative inexperience. He shut down some significant programs run out of the Texas Space Grant Consortium, University of Texas Austin, in one case to have it run by complete neophytes at a local community college. He was behind largely shutting down the JSC History Office, firing the most experienced and longest serving senior people.
I am surprised he has gotten away with these things. I guess when the NASA government manager repeatedly fires senior and older contractor employees they dont get charged with age discrimination even though thats a large part of it. Some of it may be pinching pennies, and as I recall his actual background is personnel budget management, not education. He set a bad example and the problems he created still continue.
Kincaid is an exemplary NASA leader. He is an example of the kind of leader you would never wish you would have to deal with and who would be as far as possible from any activity in which you’re involved.