When to Outsource? Consider Inherently Governmental
Source: Larkin Dudley & Michael DeLor, PA Times, (subscription req.) July 2008
National attention to the controversies surrounding Abu Ghraib prison and other contracts raises questions of accountability, transparency and justice, question that begin with the decision of when to contract. We argue here that a quaint term, inherently governmental, defined in OMB Circular A-76, as "being so intimately related to the public interest as to mandate performance by Federal employees," can still stimulate efforts to improve contract management.