Feds fared well in job competitions studied by GAO

When federal employees have an opportunity to compete against contractors for work, they tend to win, according to statistics released last week by the General Accounting Office.

In-house teams held on to 84 percent of full-time jobs placed up for competition with the private sector at the Defense Department and five major civilian agencies in fiscal 2003, according to a Government Executive analysis of data gathered by GAO. In fiscal 2002, in-house teams retained three-quarters of positions placed up for bids at the six departments.

These figures exclude federal jobs lost to the private sector through direct conversions, where agencies outsource work to private companies without holding a competition. After factoring in direct conversions, in-house teams retained 76 percent of jobs considered for outsourcing at the six departments in fiscal 2003, and 69 percent in fiscal 2002.

In theory, agencies could require contract employees already performing federal work to form teams and compete for jobs. But in practice, in-house teams usually consist of federal employees. The statistics gathered by GAO prove that government workers prevail even against tough odds, union representatives said on Monday.

"I think it shows that the federal workforce is not as inefficient and bureaucratic as a lot of sources out there [claim]," said Randy Erwin, assistant to the president at the National Federation of Federal Employees.

Unions have long maintained that the Bush administration's competitive sourcing initiative is merely a method of privatizing federal work. Office of Management and Budget rules governing public-private competitions favor contractors over government workers, the unions argue.

Despite the rules, federal employees continue to win competitions because they "provide a better bargain to the taxpayer than contractors do," said Matt Biggs, legislative director at the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers. IFPTE is an AFL-CIO affiliate representing roughly 80,000 technical and administrative workers. About half of its members hold government jobs.

But Stan Soloway, of Professional Services Council, an Arlington, Va.-based contractors association, argued that the statistics gathered by GAO simply debunk union claims that competitive sourcing is "fixed against" federal employees. "How could one side win [nearly] 85 percent of the time?" Soloway asked. "That ought to raise a red flag."

Soloway aired similar concerns in interviews for a February 2004 Government Executive article pointing out similar trends in job competition results.

Federal employees performed especially well in the streamlined competitions researched by GAO. Agencies can use streamlined procedures to speed up competitions in which fewer than 65 jobs are at stake. Overall, in-house teams at the six agencies researched by GAO held on to almost 99 percent of positions at stake in streamlined competitions completed in fiscal 2003, and kept 97 percent in fiscal 2002.

In full competitions, in-house teams at the agencies included in GAO statistics kept 81 percent of jobs competed in fiscal 2003, and 75 percent in fiscal 2002. All of the full competitions finished in fiscal 2002 and studied by GAO took place at the Pentagon.

Anecdotal evidence indicates that federal employees had less trouble winning streamlined competitions because agencies had a difficult time attracting qualified bids from the private sector, Soloway said. The Bush administration should take notice of these statistics, he added, and correct any biases in the process. Otherwise, contractors will have little incentive to compete for federal work.

While the statistics might seem like good news for government workers, the American Federation of Federal Employees is not celebrating. "You can slice these numbers any way you want, said Jacqueline Simon, public policy director at AFGE.

The GAO data only paints a picture of competitive sourcing through the end of September 2003, Simon noted. The numbers give little indication of how federal employees will fare in contests conducted using OMB's May 2003 rewrite of Circular A-76, the rule book for public-private competitions.

Industry representatives predicted that federal employees would perform at least as well under the reworked rules. In the May 2003 rules, OMB attempted to level the playing field for federal employees. For instance, the revised guidelines ban direct conversions, unless agencies request permission from OMB.

"I would expect that [federal employees] will do pretty well under the revisions," said Cathy Garman, vice president for public policy at the Contract Services Association.

GAO collected the fiscal 2002 and 2003 statistics as part of a broader review of competitive sourcing efforts at the Pentagon and the Agriculture, Education, Health and Human Services, Interior, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs departments. Together, these seven departments house roughly 84 percent of federal jobs classified as commercial--and therefore vulnerable to private-sector competition--in 2002 inventories.

The Interior Department is excluded from the statistical analysis because the agency did not provide GAO with detailed data. Interior considered outsourcing 2,483 full-time positions in fiscal 2002 and 2003. In-house teams retained 968 of the jobs at stake. Statistics provided to GAO do not specify the type of competitions conducted at Interior, and could include direct conversions.

Further information on job competition results at the Agriculture, Defense, Education, Health and Human Services, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs departments is available in the appendix to the GAO report (GAO-04-367).