When it comes to the government's internal operations, "competitive sourcing" is arguably the most argumentative issue.
The underlying law that supports President Bush 's initiative uses federal jobs as the primary measuring stick, causing never-ending opposition from federal unions. Experts differ on whether the initiative saves money. Federal managers are said to dislike the process, launched in 2001, because of the workplace disruption it causes.
There's also the perception that the Office of Management and Budget pressures agencies to conduct competitive sourcing studies, which determine whether commercial activities should be kept in-house or turned over to contractors. The goal is to get the work done at less cost with no loss in the quality of services.
OMB's role has proved politically sensitive from the start, and after some wrangling on Capitol Hill, the budget office announced in July 2003 that it was dropping "numerical goals" in favor of "negotiated tailored baselines" so that agencies have some flexibility in contracting out. Rather than judge agencies based on the percentage of jobs up for bid, OMB turned to a scorecard -- green for good, yellow for mixed results and red for bad -- to track progress.
So this month the U.S. Forest Service created a small stir when an "informational update" created the impression that OMB was putting the strong arm on the Forest Service's parent, the Agriculture Department.
The Forest Service memo said OMB had told Agriculture "that it's previous 'Yellow' rating in competitive sourcing on the . . . scorecard will be changed to 'Red.' . . . It was stated that this was due to the lack of competitions, and primarily in the Forest Service."
The memo noted that "OMB has never been satisfied with the lack of competitions in the Forest Service." The memo also seemed to raise the old quota issue (using federal jargon for measuring full-time employees, or FTEs). But it also reiterated that the Forest Service has its own game plan.
"The number of FTEs studied is important, this is an accountability item for the Agency; however the number of FTEs is secondary to which work activities are selected for future competition. It is still Forest Service strategy to focus on the 'work' and then allow that to identify the numbers," the memo said.
As a result, the memo indicated, the Forest Service will look for 100 jobs in its communications office that can be put up for competition with the private sector in fiscal 2005 rather than take a one-year break from competitive sourcing.
Asked about the memo, Chris Pyron , deputy chief for business operations at the Forest Service, said it "contained a number of factual errors."
Asked if OMB was leaning on the Forest Service, Pyron quipped, "That would make a good story." He also said, "I have not had any calls from OMB telling me to do anything."
At OMB, officials were mum on the memo, referring questions to the Forest Service. The memo, issued this month, has been revised at the Forest Service to remove some references to OMB.
