Agencies turn in latest round of outsourcing lists

Federal agencies were under orders to turn in lists of federal jobs that could be performed by contractors to the Office of Management and Budget by the end of last week, but critics say the Clinton administration isn't taking the law seriously.

The lists are required by the 1998 Federal Activities Inventory Reform (FAIR) Act, which requires agencies to annually review their workforces and submit lists of commercial jobs to OMB. Those lists are then sent to Congress and publicly released.

This year's lists were due at OMB by June 30.

Federal agencies must classify jobs in one of the following categories:

• Inherently governmental, which means the work cannot be performed by commercial companies.
• Commercial, which means the work can be performed by commercial companies.
• Commercial exempt, which means the work could be performed by commercial companies but is prohibited from being outsourced by federal law.

Thomas said OMB has failed to effectively implement the law and charged that agencies are shielding jobs from commercial competition. In fiscal 1999, agencies listed about 1 million jobs as commercial but found reasons for exempting half of them from commercial competition, Thomas said.

Thomas has proposed legislation that would tighten FAIR Act requirements, including requiring more detailed explanations of why jobs are exempt from competition. Also, the legislation would require agencies to submit to OMB annual lists of jobs that they consider inherently governmental.

OMB has made some changes in the lists this year, including requiring agencies to post the lists on their Web sites and giving contractors and employees more time to file appeals of jobs left on or off the lists. Also, agencies are being asked to provide more detailed descriptions of the jobs and reasons for leaving them off their lists.

"We expect the changes will be helpful, but we still don't know if the information on the lists will be understandable to a lay person," said Olga Grkavac, executive vice president of the Information Technology Association of America in Arlington, Va.