TOPICS
TOPICS
Senator seeks indefinite competitive sourcing freeze
Legislation introduced on Wednesday by Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., would suspend public-private job competitions indefinitely and encourage agencies to bring contracted work back in-house.
The Correction of Longstanding Errors in Agencies Unsustainable Procurements (CLEAN UP) Act (S. 924) goes a step beyond language in the fiscal 2009 omnibus spending package by barring public-private competitions indefinitely, rather than through the end of the fiscal year. Under Mikulski's bill, agencies could not resume contests until the director of the Office of Management and Budget and inspectors general of the five largest agencies determined that reforms to level the playing field for federal employees had been implemented.
As part of these reforms, agencies would be required to identify instances where inherently governmental work is being performed by contractors, and return that work to federal employees over several years. The bill also would encourage agencies to give federal employees the opportunity to perform new work, and jobs that were outsourced without competition or are being performed poorly by contractors.
The measure asks officials to determine if they are currently experiencing or will experience shortages of federal employees in certain categories and to develop plans to address that situation. It also would require OMB to revise Circular A-76, which contains the rules for running competitions, to ensure all costs are considered, federal employee teams are charged only for actual overhead costs, automatic recompetitions for federal work are abolished and time limits for studies are enforced firmly.
"Federal employees deserve to be treated fairly," Mikulski said in a statement. "This bill will be a major step toward cleaning up the contracting abuses of the last eight years and bringing jobs that were wrongly awarded to private contractors back to where they belong -- with our first-rate federal employees."
John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said the measure would go a long way toward reversing the previous administration's "wholesale privatization crusade."
But the Professional Services Council said the bill would tie the Obama administration's hands as it tries to improve government performance and drive "yet another unnecessary wedge between federal employees and federal contractors when we should be building partnerships."
The legislation is the "wrong solution, aimed at the wrong problem, offered at the wrong time, based on wrong information and focused on the wrong set of issues," said Stan Soloway, the contractor group's president and chief executive officer.
COMMENTS
- The problem with contracting, outsourcing and in-sourcing is the lack of balance between them. For far too long the government, like a pendulum swings too far to one area then compensates by swinging too far the other way. There needs to be an appropriate blend or mix of all. Several contributing negative factors affect the A-76 program 1. Government (including union AFGE and congressional) personnel lack A-76 program knowledge for program support. 2. Maybe most importantly is a poorly written Performance Work Statement (PWS). This is where the requirements are written (and bid on) that are to be performed by the contractor or MEO. Usually a poorly written PWS causes cost increases. 3. The lack of accountability of government employees is absurd. The good old boy/girl philosophy runs rampant and is hard to rid itself of those unqualified or under prepared. And If the AFGE were actually concerned about fraud waste and abuse in government, they would look in the mirror. Ken Posted May 19, 2009 9:05 AM
- Having worked on both sides- i believe that most contractors want to get the job done- of course they are "for profit" but in order to grow as an organization they must perform on contracts. What I have seen is a lack of Government oversight, poorly trained CORs, technical personnel who abuse their power and status, and overworked acquisition personnel on the Government side. Until the Government personnel system is reformed which allows the Government to get rid of ineffective personnel, rewards good performers and streamlines the hiring process, we should not begin to move toward changing the outsourcing situation. Both Sides Posted May 6, 2009 4:33 PM
- As an ordinary citizen (neither a contractor nor a government employee) I will observe from the comments that the "work" doesn't seem to be done in either case. If this is true, perhaps we can simply do away with some of the work altogether. Fire the contractors and don't bother expanding the federal workforce. Let's find out how much of this work is truly necessary for good government to work. Citizen Outsider Posted May 6, 2009 1:56 PM
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