Outsourcing is here to stay for Defense Department employees, even when a new administration enters the White House, Pentagon officials said Thursday during a live satellite broadcast about the public-private competitions forcing hundreds of thousands of civilian workers to defend their jobs.
The broadcast, hosted by Stan Soloway, deputy under secretary of Defense for acquisition reform,, featured a discussion with the head of the Pentagon's "competitive sourcing" efforts, Randall Yim, deputy under secretary of Defense for installations. The broadcast also included a documentary on competitions at DoD installations nationwide, and a panel of experts that fielded questions from audience members.
"In the end, I hope you'll find the process less threatening," Soloway told the audience.
Competitive sourcing, also known as public-private competition, is governed by processes laid out in Office of Management and Budget Circular A-76. From 1997 to 2003, the Pentagon plans to put more than 200,000 civilian jobs up for competition using A-76 procedures. When in-house workers lose the competitions, their jobs are outsourced to private contractors.
Yim focused his comments on what he said are misconceptions about the A-76 process. Many people make the mistake of thinking that A-76 is just about dollar savings, but the process is fundamentally a good business practice, he said.
The Defense Department will continue to push for innovations and best business practices in the future, Yim said. "A-76 will be around in some shape or form, regardless of the administration," he said.
Probably the biggest complaint about A-76 is that it's not a fair process, Yim said. "We owe it to our public employees to ensure an actual fair process and to ensure the appearance of fairness throughout the process," he said.
Managing the performance of contracts, to ensure that cost savings are realized throughout the life of the contract, is essential, Yim said. "It's important that we not be baited and switched by anybody."
One audience member asked if an installation commander is allowed to take sides during an A-76 competition. An installation commander on the panel agreed that it's tough to remain unbiased. "It's natural that commanders want to take care of their people," he said, but "you have a responsibility to communicate honestly and ensure that it's a fair process."
According to a panel member representing the contractor industry, contractors usually have the best interest of the workforce at heart because if they win the bid, 80 to 90 percent of the employees the contractors hire will come out of the in-house workforce.
A-76 competitions are expected to save the Defense Department $11 billion from now until 2005. Yim said that money would be reinvested to improve the agency's infrastructure, including servicemembers' quality of life.
Questions from audience members and those watching the broadcast via satellite or the Internet were addressed throughout the program. Most covered the nitty-gritty of the A-76 process. But the underlying issue is what happens to those who are impacted by competitive outsourcing, Yim said.
"The most difficult part is that we're not just talking about savings, we're talking about people's careers," he said.
DoD wants to educate its workforce about the need for A-76 and reinforce that the agency will help affected employees, said Yim. "Those are the types of values we need to protect as part of our military tradition."
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