Bush Plan To Contract Federal Jobs Falls Short

[flashl]

Source: Washington Post


Scope and Savings Have Not Met Goals

Joseph Wassmann thought he had a secure position producing videos for the U.S. Military Academy, but not long ago he found his job on the line because of a Bush administration plan to inject more efficiency into the federal bureaucracy.

Wassmann, 40, was among a group of information management employees at West Point who had to prove that they could do their jobs better and more cheaply than a private contractor. If they could not, they were told, the work would be outsourced. It was all part of President Bush's government-wide plan to reduce costs by inviting contractors to bid on about 425,000 federal jobs that could be considered "commercial" in nature.

...

The public-private face-off at West Point illustrates just what Bush envisioned when he proposed the "competitive sourcing" initiative in 2001 as part of his management agenda. It turned on a simple idea: Force federal employees to compete for their jobs against private contractors and costs will decrease, even if the work ultimately stays in-house.

...

The program fell short of the president's goals in scope and in cost savings. Between 2003 and 2006, agencies completed competitions for fewer than 50,000 jobs, a fraction of what Bush envisioned.

Washington Post

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/24/AR2008042403457.html

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Interesting. Read as, there are still federal employees on the rolls today who were there at the beginning of * administration. It is widely known in D.C. that the 'government', in name only, is largely a group of contractors managing contractors. Wonder who he missed?

[maddezmom]

1. kick

[Winterblues]

2. They use Contractor bids againts real government spending

Everyone knows those "bids" are just a starting point. Cost overruns are as common as fleas on a hound dog.