AFGE is seeking continued support from the White House on keeping in place a ban on the process to hand over control of government functions to private businesses. In a letter dated Nov. 5 to President Barack Obama, AFGE asks for the president’s support for the ban as the House version of a fiscal 2015 spending bill doesn’t include the governmentwide ban on the use of the OMB Circular A-76 privatization process while the Senate version does. The bill in question is the Financial Services Appropriations bill, which has retained the ban since 2009.
“The administration’s opposition to lifting the moratorium makes great sense when we take into account concerns raised by the Government Accountability Office that, even after years and years of costly and disruptive privatization studies across the federal government, A-76 supporters could not demonstrate any savings; and the DoD Inspector General that the controversial privatization process included a fundamental bias against the in-house workforce,” AFGE President J. David Cox Sr. writes.
A similar letter was sent to Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Barbara Mikulski. AFGE has also asked OMB Deputy Director for Management Beth Cobert to work to retain the prohibition.