WASHINGTON, D.C. -- AFGE is calling on Congress to impose a moratorium on
further contracting out by the Department of Defense (DOD) until the
Pentagon can prove that privatizing civilian defense jobs is the best deal
for America's taxpayers. In testimony before the Senate Appropriations
subcommittee on Defense, AFGE National Vice President Terry Rogers will also
detail the vital need for DOD contractor inventory.
"DOD consistently overestimates savings from contracting out, has no proof
that savings are ultimately realized and does a terrible fob of tracking
contracting out costs and savings," Rogers will emphasize. "It is,
therefore, imperative that DOD establish a contractor inventory." This
contractor inventory would include: (1) recording the size of the
government's contractor workforce; (2) tracking contract renews to give due
consideration to the option of contracting in services; (3) reporting
contracting out costs; and (4) reviewing how the work was sent to the
private sector; i.e., was the work competed through A-76 or simply taken
away from federal employees without giving them a chance to defend their
jobs?
In his testimony, Rogers will stress that the critical element in the
contractor inventory is the tracking of contracting out costs. The inventory
would require agencies to keep track of the basic costs for each contract,
how much it cost for federal employees to do the work at the time their work
was contracted out, how much the contractor said it would cost and how much
the contract is actually costing the taxpayers.
"One would think that such information would already be kept, especially
when Administration officials ostensibly only care about how well the job
gets done," Rogers will state. "But contractor cost data is not kept-which
explains why taxpayers are losing billions of dollars to contractor waste,
fraud and abuse."
"Contracting out is about politics, not improving efficiency," Rogers will
conclude. "I urge the Subcommittee to consider how contracting out is
undermining readiness and hurting taxpayers."