An amendment to the fiscal 2000 Defense authorization bill would prevent the Army from carrying out its plan to contract out a logistics modernization effort.
The Army had granted the Communications-Electronics Command at Ft. Monmouth, N.J., a waiver from Office of Management and Budget Circular A-76, which sets rules for contracting out. The waiver would allow the organization to privatize its wholesale logistics modernization effort without allowing 500 employees at software centers in Chambersburg, Pa., and St. Louis, Mo., to compete for their jobs.
The amendment, introduced by Rep. James Talent, R-Mo., would require the two software centers to undergo a most-efficient-organization (MEO) process, as described under Circular A-76. The amendment calls for the newly created MEO to work with a private contractor on modernizing the wholesale logistics operations until the transition from the old system to the new one is complete. At that point, the size of the non-contractor staff would be reduced.
Talent's amendment aims to keep employees responsible for the system on board during its upgrade. But opponents of the amendment say that under the outsourcing option current staff would simply be hired by the private contractor and that the MEO process would ultimately only hinder modernization efforts. The Army already is requiring that contractors who want to bid on the logistics modernization offer the Army employees jobs in the same locations.
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