Friday, January 21, 2011
An audit of military contracts for 24 of its 26 commands and headquarters has turned up more than 4,200 full-time jobs assigned by the U.S. Army that legally should belong to federal employees, but instead are being handled by contractors.
These positions, according to federal guidelines, are only intended for U.S. government workers, either because the duties are inherently governmental or constitute “unauthorized personal services.”
The Government Accountability Office identified 2,357 contractor employees performing inherently governmental functions, which include awarding and administering contracts, determining budget priorities, and hiring or firing federal employees.
Another 1,800 or so contractors have been handling unauthorized personal services that federal employees should be performing.
In FY 2009, the Army paid for 262,282 full-time contract employees and the entire Department of Defense reported 766,732 contract employees.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Army Contractors Performing Inherently Governmental Functions (by Robert Brodsky, Government Executive)
Defense Acquisitions: Further Action Needed to Better Implement Requirements for Conducting Inventory of Service Contract Activities (Government Accountability Office) (pdf)
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