EPA completes first long-term competitive sourcing plan

The Environmental Protection Agency arrived at its first long-term competitive sourcing plan without relying on annual inventories of eligible jobs, an agency official said Wednesday.

Each year agencies compile lists classifying jobs as commercial or inherently governmental, as required by the 1998 Federal Activities Inventory Reform Act. The lists identify categories of work that could be performed by the private sector, and can be used as a guide when planning public-private job competitions. But some agencies have had a difficult time compiling accurate lists.

EPA has found enough inconsistencies in how job functions are coded on FAIR Act inventories that the agency's Competitive Sourcing Council-made up of headquarters and regional administrators-asked offices to put the list aside and suggest work that might be well-suited to a job contest. The council combed through the suggestions and in late September released EPA's first multiyear competitive sourcing plan, said David O'Connor, deputy assistant administrator for the agency's Office of Administration and Resources Management.

"[We] told them: 'For right now, forget about how functions are coded,'" O'Connor said. "Let's just take a look and see which ones might make the most sense."

The coding on the FAIR Act lists is completed by managers across the agency and can be "very subjective," O'Connor said. "Because of inconsistencies and other problems with the coding, the inventory did not point to large enough or even logical groups of [full-time jobs] suitable for competitive sourcing," EPA officials stated in a decision paper documenting competitive sourcing plans through 2008.

EPA is working to fix inconsistencies in the inventories. "Each time we update the inventory we try to make improvements," O'Connor said.

But in the meantime, the council decided the competitive sourcing program would benefit from more advance planning and drew up a three-year strategy that entailed placing about 850 full-time jobs in three basic categories up for competition. This is simply a goal and general plan, O'Connor said. Previously, EPA, which has approximately 18,000 employees, had planned from year to year, he said.

Before running the contests, officials will have to go back and "do the leg work" of identifying the particular positions that would be included and of ensuring that the jobs are all coded as commercial on the FAIR Act inventories, O'Connor said. He said he did not anticipate large discrepancies between the coding and the categories of jobs picked for competitions.

The Sept. 22 plan calls for running public-private competitions on 325 full-time information technology in fiscal 2006; 25 full-time financial services positions in fiscal 2007; and 450 administrative support jobs in fiscal 2008. The administrative support contest will come last to allow time to address possible adverse impacts on "minority employees and employees who might lack the skills to be mobile and be placed in other positions," the plan stated.

Longer term planning gives "managers, employees and unions . . . the benefit of knowing in advance what areas will be potentially impacted and when, allowing for better planning while minimizing uncertainty and angst among employees," the EPA's Competitive Sourcing Council stated.

But the three-year strategy has generated complaints from union officials and at least one interest group. The public-private competitions will have a negative impact on morale and will waste employees' time, said Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a nonprofit organization based in Washington.

The EPA, which so far completed contests for about 90 full-time jobs, is bowing to pressure from the Bush administration to run a more aggressive competitive sourcing program, according to Ruch. "This outsourcing plan is not about making EPA more effective or protective of public health," he said. "It is about politics: giving more government work to contractors."

The EPA's goal of placing 850 jobs up for competition dates back to before the Office of Management and Budget abandoned quotas for the number of jobs the administration wanted to see each agency compete, said Diana Price, a procurement specialists at the American Federation of Government Employees, one of the unions representing EPA workers.

"If OMB isn't still enforcing its illegal quotas, it would really be astounding that the EPA came up with the exact same number of [jobs] to be reviewed, given the agency's changing views on the number of [employees] performing each function and the functions appropriate for privatization review," Price said.

O'Connor also said the goal of 850 jobs was one the agency has had for a while, though the plan for reaching it wasn't articulated until September. But he said EPA arrived at the goal on its own and is not under any pressure from the OMB.

EPA earned a yellow indicating "mixed results" in competitive sourcing on the Bush administration's most recent quarterly traffic-light-style management score card. That grade represents accomplishments as of June 30, the close of the third-quarter of fiscal 2005.

The agency is set to earn a top marks on the score card if it is able to implement its long-term plan, O'Connor said. Challenges include maintaining good communication and employee satisfaction. "There is a fair amount of misinformation and misunderstanding out there," he added.