Employees call for congressional review of outsourcing decision

Hundreds of employees at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., who stand to lose their jobs to a contractor, are calling for a congressional investigation into how the work was outsourced. "I am extremely concerned about the fairness of the entire [outsourcing] process…and insist that you investigate this matter thoroughly," says a draft letter that Maxwell employees are circulating and encouraging one another to forward to members of Congress. Earlier this month, the General Accounting Office reversed an Air Force decision and recommended that more than 800 military and civilian base operations jobs be outsourced because a contractor could do the work more cheaply than base employees. The Air Force had awarded the work to federal employees following a public-private competition in February, but the losing contractor, DynCorp Technical Services, protested the decision to GAO and now will be awarded a $198 million, five-year contract. All told, 402 civilian jobs will be eliminated, although workers are likely to have the right of first refusal to work for DynCorp. In their letter, the employees note that only four days before DynCorp filed its protest with GAO, the company hired F. Whitten Peters, who served as Air Force Secretary from 1999 to January 2001. "Just prior to leaving the office…Peters named DynCorp Air Force Contractor of the Year," the letter states. The public-private competition followed the rules outlined in Office of Management and Budget Circular A-76, which requires a competition between federal workers and a contractor before any jobs are privatized, with the work going to the lowest bidder. A-76 competitions have come under increased scrutiny in recent years, as the Pentagon has called for outsourcing as a way to free up money to buy new weapons and pay the bills for military readiness.