Union says Army gives contractors unfair advantage

An Army Web site providing detailed position classification data provides an unfair advantage to private contractors bidding for government jobs, the largest federal employee union has charged.

The American Federation of Government Employees filed a complaint Friday in a U.S. district court against the Army's FASCLASS Web site. FASCLASS, which stands for "fully automated system for classification," is a Web-based system of providing job classification records.

FASCLASS includes information on job titles, series, grades, classification standards, competitive levels, competitive areas, organization names and position description numbers.

Such sensitive personnel information gives private contractors an unfair and illegal advantage in bidding for government contracts, AFGE charged.

"FASCLASS has quickly become a dependable meal ticket for private contractors at the expense of public-private competition," said AFGE President Bobby L. Harnage.

AFGE says the site violates procurement statutes that form the basis of OMB Circular A-76, which sets the rules for public-private competitions. The Army doesn't have access to contractors' plans for A-76 competitions, AFGE said, so contractors shouldn't be allowed to view the Army's plans.

Contractors can use information provided on FASCLASS to figure out how many workers the Army has in a particular division and what they are paid. The Web site's instant access and up-to-date data allows contractors to put together a fairly accurate estimate of how much a job that is being competed would cost the Army. They can then underbid that price, said Martin R. Cohen, assistant general counsel for litigation at AFGE.

The process ends up costing taxpayers money, AFGE charged. Once contractors have a ballpark figure for the Army's costs, they can modestly underbid that price. Without the personnel information, the contractor's bid would likely be much lower, Cohen said.