POGO Launches New Survey on Federal Contracting

How effectively is the federal government managing its workforce of private sector contractors? POGO has launched a web-based survey designed to shed light on the federal government’s policies and practices regarding its use of private sector contractors to perform services previously performed by government employees.

If you are a federal government or contractor employee with experience in federal service contracts, we would love to get your perspective on whether the government’s contracts conform to regulatory standards and are achieving the purported goals for using private contractors instead of government employees. These goals include acquiring hard-to-find skills, saving money, and augmenting the federal workforce on a temporary or emergency basis. However, the records the government keeps about service contracts and the contractor workforce make it difficult to determine whether those goals are being achieved.

The federal government currently spends over $500 billion a year on contractors. From the earliest days of the Republic, there has been a controversy over the size of the federal government and who can best deliver the most efficient and effective performance of federal programs – the private sector or government employees. At the same time, there has been concern that private contractors are crossing the line by providing services that are inherently governmental.

The survey is organized into several sections. Respondents are prompted to answer only the sections that pertain to their particular job skills and/or work experience, such as:

• Private contractor employees who work on federal service contracts

• Government employees with responsibilities for issuing FAIR Act inventories

• Agency personnel who collect and analyze budget and/or workforce data

• Government officials who obtain the services of private contractors

• Federal contracting officers and technical representatives

• Federal acquisitions officials

• Federal employees of an Office of Inspector General - Federal ethics officers

To get to the survey, click here or go to the link at the bottom of POGO’s home page. Please try to respond by November 30, 2009.

Responses to the survey will be held in strict confidence. Respondents are also invited to contact POGO personally with any other helpful information.

Contacts:

Paul Chassy: pchassy@pogo.org

Neil Gordon: ngordon@pogo.org

Scott Amey: scott@pogo.org

202-347-1122

-- Neil Gordon