Number of federal jobs opened to contractors to jump this year

Federal agencies plan to announce public-private competitions for more than 26,500 positions by the close of this fiscal year, compared to fewer than 5,000 positions announced in fiscal 2005.

Agencies anticipate that 26,591 full-time equivalent positions will be listed for public-private competition in fiscal 2006, according to a report on competitive sourcing released Thursday by the Office of Management and Budget.

The Defense Department leads the list, with 10,338 full-time positions planned for competitions -- a significant increase over the 1,301 positions announced last year. The Army Corps of Engineers is second, the report said, with 2,000 posts to be opened to contractors compared with just 80 in 2005.

The intended 2006 competitions represent more than a five-fold increase over the 4,876 full-time positions that were opened to competition in 2005. OMB reported that agencies completed contests for 9,979 jobs that year, but many of those were announced in prior years. The average duration of standard-sized competitions is 11 months, while so-called streamlined competitions, which rely more heavily on agency market research and only can be used when fewer than 65 full-time positions are at stake, averaged just shorter than three months, according to the report.

For contests announced or completed in 2005, the activities most subject to competition were installation services, communications, computing and information services and administrative support.

OMB issued its annual report in compliance with the fiscal 2004 Transportation-Treasury Appropriations Act, which established a governmentwide reporting requirement for the competitive sourcing initiative.

Initial data in the report, released by OMB earlier this month, indicated that agencies expect to save $3.1 billion over the next five to 10 years as a result of public-private competitions completed in 2005. Federal employees retained 61 percent of the full-time positions competed through 181 competitions in 2005.

In cumulative data covering fiscal 2003 through fiscal 2005, OMB found that federal employees retained an average of 83 percent of positions placed up for competition. The administration expects the federal government to realize $5.6 billion in savings as a result of those competitions, OMB said.

"Federal employees are taking advantage of competitive sourcing … to achieve quantifiable savings and better service to taxpayers," wrote Clay Johnson, OMB deputy director for management and the office's acting director, in a letter accompanying the report. "Through public-private competition, managers of highly commercial activities are making reasoned determinations about whether taxpayers are better served through performance by a most efficient government organization or, alternatively, by a qualified, cost-effective contractor."

OMB also released a report Thursday on so-called best value competitions, in which agencies evaluate the in-house and contractor bids on both cost and quality. That report concluded the strategy was beneficial, noting that a major Federal Aviation Administration public-private competition for 2,500 flight service jobs won by a private sector bidder was conducted using a best value tradeoff process.

Competitive sourcing is one of five key components of the President's Management Agenda, and agencies are evaluated quarterly on their success in implementing the strategy.

Federal unions and other critics have disputed the benefits of the initiative, arguing that the competitions unfairly disadvantage federal employees, are expensive to perform and fail to save the government money.