DOD must stick to A-76 rules

The Defense Department will be required to meet the Bush administration's outsourcing goals, said Angela Styles, administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy.

"They're going to meet our 15 percent goals using the A-76 process," said Styles, referring to Office of Management and Budget Circular A-76, which lays out the process for outsourcing government work. Part of the A-76 process is a competition between potential bidders and federal employees that are currently doing the work.

In a December 2001 memo to OMB, DOD sought an exemption from using A-76 and proposed to use other ways to reach the 15 percent goal for fiscal 2003. "Rather than pursuing narrowly defined A-76 targets, we propose to step back and not confine our approach to only A-76," Pete Aldridge, undersecretary of Defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, said in the memo.

In its guidance last year, OMB directed agencies to open to competition 15 percent of the federal jobs considered commercially viable by the end of fiscal 2003. Under the Federal Activities and Inventory Reform (FAIR) Act, agencies must create a list of jobs that are not inherently governmental.

Styles said that A-76 was the process that had been determined as the most fair for all interested parties.

"As many bad things as people say about A-76, it ensures that public employees have an opportunity to compete for their jobs," she said.

DOD spokesman Glenn Flood said that the department had "always been in absolute agreement with the president's management reform agenda."

Aldridge is leading the DOD Business Initiative Council, which is responsible for changing DOD business practices to improve mission effectiveness and reduce cost, Flood said. That group is working on a plan that will include "quantifiable indicators for documenting savings" for DOD's fiscal 2004 budget.

"The department has long been the leader in the federal government in competing commercial functions with the private sector under the rules of OMB Circular A-76," Flood said.

In a Jan. 30 meeting between officials from OMB and DOD, Flood said: "We reached agreement that our ongoing efforts would allow us to meet the 15 percent goal by fiscal 2003. And we are continuing to develop metrics and timelines for the broader [Business Initiative Council] plan, including the use of A-76, to reach the overall 50 percent goal consistent with the president's management reform agenda."