In today’s economy, government procurement professionals have a moral obligation to remember it is the taxpayers’ money they are spending. Every penny spent becomes public record. Because of this, it is easy to focus on price exclusively. Does this really lower the cost to taxpayers?

Warren Buffett said “Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.” As the 2010 census shows, the value that will be expected from our government is changing drastically. Data from the U.S. Census Bureau summarizes that our Asian population has grown 43.3%, Hispanic population has grown 43.0% and multi-ethnic population has grown 24.4%.

Robert M. Groves, Director of the Census Bureau, said on his blog that “We are approaching a new high point in the prevalence of U.S. residents who were born outside the country. The size of the foreign-born population has never been greater since the 1920s; the percentage of the population has grown significantly since the low point in 1960s. This means a higher portion of consumers view products and services partially from the lens of their home country’s culture.”

He went on to add “The race and ethnicity identities within the population are correspondingly becoming more diverse. Minority groups are growing faster than the White Non-Hispanic population, both because of higher fertility rates and immigration. This means the minority populations are especially dominant in younger consumer groups. Advertisers of products of services need to understand the tastes, preferences, and purchasing power of these groups. Those advertisers of products and services aimed at youth will really have to understand the interplay of language, culture, race, and ethnicity.”

In order to provide current and future constituencies with the services they need and demand, government agencies will need a keen understanding of the language, culture, race and ethnicity of a veritable melting pot of home countries. Simply procuring language translation and interpretation services may seem to be the answer, but it fails the test when procurement is based on price.

While IFBs, RFQs etc. may specify certain quality requirements, it is difficult to imagine adherence at the rates that often win. There is a serious risk that the rates offered are achieved by stripping away critical components such as suitable errors and omissions insurance, linguist quality, project management effort, proofreading, editing, cultural consulting and proper maintenance of translation memories.

In short, while low word rates may seem attractive, they accomplish little to service the growing number of people who view government services partially from the lens of their home country’s culture. A reductionist approach that separates language from cultural considerations to save a few cents per word is simply not commensurate with the value that is and will continue to be expected.