FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 09, 2009
December 09, 2009
Enid Doggett
(202) 639-6419
(202) 639-6419
AFGE Commends Creation of Contract Inventory Process Established By Chairs of House and Senate Financial Services Appropriations Committees
AFGE commends the Chairmen of the House and Senate Financial Services Appropriations Subcommittees and Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) for authoring a proposal that would require non-DoD agencies to compile inventories of service contracts that can then be used to determine which service contracts are appropriate for cancellation and insourcing.
AFGE had earlier worked with House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-MO), Senator Mikulski, and the late Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) to establish a contractor inventory for the Department of Defense in the FY08 National Defense Authorization Act.
AFGE is pleased to have now worked with Chairmen Serrano and Durbin and Senator Mikulski to establish a similar inventory for the non-DoD agencies in the FY10 Financial Services Appropriations Bill. In addition, the funding measure includes a provision that continues the government-wide ban on starting new OMB Circular A-76 privatization studies.
DoD is currently using its inventory to identify contracts that can be cancelled; that should be insourced because they include unauthorized personal services or work that is inherently governmental or closely associated with inherently governmental work; were contracted out without competition; and are poorly performed. Non-DoD agencies would also be able to scrutinize their service contracts for possible savings.
The inventory would build on a requirement established in the FY09 Financial Services Appropriations Bill that requires non-DoD agencies to give special insourcing consideration to closely associated with inherently governmental work, poorly performed work, or work that was contracted out without competition.
“The Congress, particularly Chairmen Durbin and Serrano and Senator Mikulski, are to be commended,” declared AFGE National President John Gage, “for continuing to ensure that in times of budget constraints, agencies will look for savings from their contractors. For too long, agencies have shrouded their vast contractor workforces in darkness, with little or any scrutiny. The Serrano-Durbin-Mikulski provision would represent a fundamental change in the way the federal government does business. We urge the Obama Administration’s Office of Management and Budget to play a meaningful role in reforming the wholesale privatization excesses perpetrated by the previous Administration and ensure that these inventories are expeditiously established, because taxpayers and federal employees will be watching. Just in case, agencies that fail to punctually comply with this requirement would be prohibited from starting new OMB Circular A-76 privatization studies.”
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