OMB outlines new FAIR Act procedures

Agencies will face scrutiny from the White House budget office when they classify federal jobs as "commercial" but then exempt them from the government's public-private competition process, Office of Federal Procurement Policy Administrator Angela Styles recently told agency chiefs.

Heightened scrutiny is one of several changes Styles is making to the yearly job-classification ritual mandated by the 1998 Federal Activities Inventory Reform (FAIR) Act, which requires agencies to compile lists of federal jobs that are "commercial in nature" and could be performed by contractors. The Bush administration is relying on accurate FAIR Act lists for use in its competitive sourcing initiative, which requires agencies to compete 15 percent of all jobs on the inventories by October 2003.

In a Feb. 27 memo, Styles outlined the procedures agencies should follow as they prepare their 2002 FAIR Act lists, which are due to the Office of Management and Budget by June 30. As it did last year, OMB is directing agencies to submit lists of "inherently governmental" jobs along with their FAIR Act inventories, which will help OMB determine whether agencies have misclassified certain jobs. In the past, OMB has criticized agencies for categorizing commercial work as inherently governmental. Though arcane, the classifications are critical, because the FAIR Act requires federal employees to perform all jobs considered inherently governmental.

Unlike last year, OMB may release lists of inherently governmental jobs to the public, according to Styles. "Agencies should anticipate the possibility that after review and consultation, OMB may request the release of inherently governmental inventories," she wrote. This would allow the lists to be used in the FAIR Act challenge-and-appeal process, by which members of the public can challenge the inclusion or exclusion of positions on the list.

Styles also warned that OMB will scrutinize commercial positions that agencies try to exempt from possible competition. The FAIR Act allows agency chiefs to exempt commercial jobs from possible outsourcing, but Styles said such exemptions should be "the exception and not the rule for any agency FAIR Act inventory." OMB may also require written justifications for any such exemptions, she said.

OMB has also developed a standard Excel spreadsheet that all agencies should use for their FAIR Act reports, Styles said. This year will mark the fourth time the government has compiled commercial inventories under the law. The Agriculture, Education, Defense, Justice, Housing and Urban Development and Transportation departments and the National Science Foundation all missed last year's June 30 deadline for submitting their FAIR Act lists.