Labor to publish job competition paperwork

The Labor Department is making decisions in small-scale job competitions less mysterious by publishing the data used to compare the cost of keeping work in-house with the cost of contracting it out.

Late last month, Labor officials began posting electronic versions of cost comparison forms on Federal Business Opportunities, an online listing of available government contracts, alongside entries announcing the outcomes of streamlined job contests. The forms open the Labor Department's cost projections, a key ingredient of the smaller contests, to public scrutiny.

Under the Office of Management and Budget's May 2003 version of Circular A-76, the guidelines on competitive sourcing, agencies must make cost streamlined comparison forms available to the public upon request, but do not have to publish them. Federal employee unions and industry groups have said they typically have difficulty getting their hands on the forms, and have complained that streamlined contests lack transparency.

Streamlined procedures allow agencies to award work without soliciting formal bids. Instead, agencies can project the costs of contracting out work based on market research. Both industry groups and unions would like better access to the streamlined cost comparison forms containing the market research estimates, so that they would have an opportunity to note possible inaccuracies. The paperwork also would lend some insight into agencies' decision-making processes, although the data lacks the level of detail that contractor groups would ultimately like to see.

Streamlined cost comparison forms are only made public after the competition is over, meaning there is little that outside groups can do if they feel the cost comparison is unfair or inaccurate. "It is not able to be challenged," said Robert Knauer, a senior federal contracting official and member of the National Contract Management Association.

But there's no reason that agencies should avoid posting the forms on FedBizOpps, Knauer said. The forms "promote fairness and honestly with the public and vendors," he noted, adding that he does not know of any agency besides Labor that has instituted a policy of posting streamlined cost comparison paperwork.

"The fact is, most agencies aren't even saying how much they won a streamlined study by in their announcement," Knauer said. "I believe [that] should be provided."

Labor Department officials have posted two cost comparison forms; one accompanying a May 20 decision to keep 11 full-time invoice processing jobs in house, and one on a May 27 decision to retain nine full-time technology workers. One vendor has contacted the department with comments on the forms.