Among the recommendations made April 6 by Defense Secretary Robert Gates for the FY 2010 budget was a commitment to convert thousands of contractor jobs into government jobs. Why? To save money.
Gates tells us that using contractors adds layers off complexity and costs, leading to problems in government procurement.
What is of special interest is his statement that there is consensus that this is what we need to do. That is an amazing change from just a few months ago.
Here are the key excerpts from Gate's speech.
This budget will support these goals by increasing the size of defense acquisition workforce, converting 11,000 contractors and hiring an additional 9,000 government acquisition professionals by 2015 – beginning with 4,100 in FY10.
Fully reforming defense acquisition also requires recognizing the challenges of today’s battlefield and constantly changing adversary. This requires an acquisition system that can perform with greater urgency and agility. We need greater funding flexibility and the ability to streamline our requirements and acquisition execution procedures.
The perennial procurement and contracting cycle – going back many decades – of adding layer upon layer of cost and complexity onto fewer and fewer platforms that take longer and longer to build must come to an end. There is broad agreement on the need for acquisition and contracting reform in the Department of Defense. There have been enough studies. Enough hand-wringing. Enough rhetoric. Now is the time for action.
Toward the end of his speech, Gates announces the numbers by which he will be reducing the number of contrators and increasing the number of civil servants.
A final recommendation that will have a significant impact on how defense organizations are staffed and operated. Under this budget request, we will reduce the number of support service contractors from our current 39 percent of the workforce to the pre-2001 level of 26 percent and replace them with full-time government employees. Our goal is to hire as many as 13,000 new civil servants in FY10 to replace contractors and up to 30,000 new civil servants in place of contractors over the next five years.
I never thought I would see the day. Here is the full text of the speech.
On the other hand, it seems to be business as usual for contractors at West Point. Here is how the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) puts it.
AFGE CHALLENGES PRIVATIZATION STUDY AT WEST POINT - Federal Employee Union Offers Thanks to Lawmakers for Work to Protect At Risk Jobs
(WASHINGTON) – The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) today challenged the privatization initiative, referred to as an A-76 study, which currently jeopardizes hundreds of jobs at the United States Military Academy at West Point. The Department of the Army recently made the decision to outsource more than 300 public works jobs to the private sector through a controversial A-76 cost competition study in late March.
Discussing the West Point privatization initiative at a town hall meeting, AFGE National President John Gage said, “The A-76 studies at West Point are the worst examples of government waste I’ve seen since Walter Reed. This process is broken and it needs to stop right here and right now.”
The West Point privatization review was plagued with problems from the beginning. The Army used an illegal cost-plus contracting method instead of the required fixed price method, which means that the contractor's bill is not limited to any certain amount. In addition, the Army divided the workload into two studies, requiring that the employees bid on them separately. This artificial division greatly disadvantaged the federal employees (and taxpayers) by prohibiting certain efficiencies of scale. The privatization review is also in violation of a federal law that limits A-76 studies to no more than 30 months and prohibits the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) from directing the Department of Defense (DoD) to perform these studies. The West Point study has been going on since 2002 and was undertaken to satisfy OMB privatization quotas.
As a result of working under this privatization threat for the past 7 years, employee morale has been devastated and workplace uncertainty is high. Depleted staff levels have increased the burden on military personnel, leaving war-fighters under-supported. AFGE is calling on Congressional leaders to protect the valuable employees at West Point and throughout the Department of the Army where privatization initiatives exploded during the Bush administration.
AFGE is encouraged by and thankful for the work of New York lawmakers, Rep. Maurice Hinchey and Rep. John Hall, who plan to introduce legislative language to prevent the privatization of federal jobs at West Point. AFGE is equally appreciative of similar planned legislation to be introduced by Senators Chuck Schumer and Kristin Gillibrand.
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