Inherently Governmental Functions | The Contracting Education Academy

February 20, 2019 By AMK

POGO questions apparent contracting-out of ‘inherently governmental functions’

Recently, the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) perused a few contractor job listings for congressional affairs specialists and budgetary analysts.

Reviewing the job descriptions, POGO was alarmed at the extent to which the jobs included tasks that are borderline illegal to contract out.

It’s no secret that the government relies on contractors to perform different tasks, and there is generally no problem with that given that the private sector has a vast amount of highly skilled workers. However, there are federal activities that, by law, must be performed by government employees, including determining agency policy, budget request priorities, and what supplies or services are to be acquired. Drafting congressional testimony or responses to congressional correspondence is also off limits to contractors.

One job announcement was so blatant that it even stated that a legislative affairs specialist would support the United States Cyber Command “With minimal guidance”’ or “With no guidance” to prepare background papers and talking points, and prepare leadership to testify before Congress, meet with Members of Congress, and meet with pertinent Congressional Committee Staff Members.

The government has become overreliant on contractors, and POGO is concerned about the blurred line between jobs that must be performed by a government employee and those that can be performed by a contractor. Jobs that must be performed by government employees are called “inherently governmental functions,” a term that generates much confusion and controversy. A 2014 Congressional Research Service report illustrates how multiple definitions of “inherently governmental” have been created over the years. The result is differences in controlling laws, regulations, White House policy and policy letters, which POGO has urged the government to clean up.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.pogo.org/analysis/2016/08/to-be-or-not-to-be-contracted-out/

April 10, 2018 By AMK

Pentagon’s delayed report on services contracts draws union ire

The massive National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2018 contained language requiring the Pentagon to provide more detail on its spending plans for $144 billion in services contracts.

But in the Trump administration’s fiscal 2019 budget released in February, the document that provides the most comprehensive information on services contracting was missing. The omission was spotted by specialists at the American Federation of Government Employees, who pointed out that last year’s submission carried more detail, while this year’s was limited to an “advisory and assistance services” document with simple line items.

“DOD has ignored the contract services budget requirement in its FY 2019 budget request,” the union said in a statement to Government Executive. “Instead, the department only submitted information on “Advisory and Assistance” contracts, which constitute a small fraction of one percent of overall DOD service contract spending. With the Trump Administration perceiving DOD as a piggy bank for non-Defense priorities, this continued lack of accountability for at least $144 billion per year in spending requires immediate congressional attention . . . to protect taxpayer dollars.”

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/defense/2018/03/pentagons-delayed-report-services-contracts-draws-union-ire/147098/

June 29, 2017 By AMK

OMB ‘out of practice’ on competitive sourcing, adviser says

Preliminary moves by the White House to ease the moratorium on reviewing federal jobs for outsourcing under the guidelines in Circular A-76 have drawn some skepticism within the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

Linda Springer, President Trump’s senior adviser on management issues who recently announced her June 30 retirement, told reporters during a June 15 briefing on curbing agency reporting requirements that her “personal view is that OMB is out of practice in running those competitions [for whether the public or private sector should perform work]. Before undertaking it,” she said, “it would be better to do some educating.”

OMB Circular A-76, which dates to 1966 before being revised, outlines a “formal, complex, and often lengthy process for managing public-private competitions to perform functions for the federal government,” as a Congressional Research Service report phrased it.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/contracting/2017/06/omb-out-practice-competitive-sourcing-adviser-says/138838

December 8, 2014 By AMK

Government oversight group chides DoD for service contract spending

The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) criticized the Defense Department (DoD) for not being able to bring service contract spending under control.

In a Nov. 25, 2014 letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, POGO charged the DoD with hindering efforts to rein in its service contract spending.

POGO said billions of dollars are being wasted because of the DoD’s failure to assemble contracting data and to implement an Enterprise-wide Contractor Manpower Reporting Application. POGO also said the agency hasn’t adequately staffed its Total Force Management Support Office.

“POGO has reason to believe that this is being done at the urging of the service contractors themselves,” POGO said.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.fiercegovernment.com/story/pogo-chides-dod-service-contract-spending/2014-12-02

Read POGO’s Nov. 25, 2015 letter at: http://pogoarchives.org/m/co/pogo_ics_ltr_to_dod_%2020141125.pdf

Read GAO’s Nov. 19, 2014 report containing finding that DoD had incomplete inventories of its service contracts at: http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-15-88

June 23, 2014 By AMK

Senate testimony: Intelligence community needs to keep better tabs on its contractors

The 17 agencies in the intelligence community must get a better handle on the extent of their reliance on contractors, witnesses told a Senate panel on Wednesday. Overuse of outsourcing presents risks to both national security and managerial efficiency, senators and an auditor warned.

“Contractors can provide flexibility and unique expertise, but there are risks” if internal controls, formal planning and documentation are inadequate, Timothy DiNapoli, director of acquisition and sourcing management at the Government Accountability Office (GAO), told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. “Changes to the definition of core contract personnel limit the comparability of the information over time,” he said, noting that the civilian intelligence community agencies used various methods to calculate the number of contract personnel and did not maintain documentation to validate the number of personnel reported for 37 percent of records reviewed. GAO also found that the civilian intelligence community agencies either under- or over-reported contract obligations by more than 10 percent for one-fifth of the records.

Panel Chairman Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., said, “The people we entrust with leadership roles at these agencies need to be able to show the American people, and Congress, that they know who is working for them and why.” Overreliance on contractors behind the intelligence agencies’ secrecy walls presents three hazards, Carper said: hollowing out the in-house workforce and making it weaker, requiring extra layers of management and paying more for work that could have been performed by federal employees.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.defenseone.com/management/2014/06/intelligence-community-needs-keep-better-tabs-its-contractors/86758/

Recently, the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) perused a few contractor job listings for congressional affairs specialists and budgetary analysts.

The massive National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2018 contained language requiring the Pentagon to provide more detail on its spending plans for $144 billion in services contracts.

Preliminary moves by the White House to ease the moratorium on reviewing federal jobs for outsourcing under the guidelines in Circular A-76 have drawn some skepticism within the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

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