Recently in Federal Category

Source: By Michele McNeil, EdWeek blog, November 23, 2009

When your government-funded program is on the chopping block, a rather damning Inspector General audit will do little to bolster your case for continued funding.

 ....... We the People and the Cooperative Civic Education and Economic Education Exchange Program. Both seek to foster civic education in K-12 schools. Both programs are also part of a laundry list of cuts the Obama administration has proposed. The savings, according to the Obama folks, would be $33.5 million. The center is a California-based nonprofit corporation that gets about 82 percent of its revenue from the U.S. Department of Education

Auditors from the Education Department's Office of Inspector General reviewed about $7.4 million of $23 million in grants that the Center for Civic Education charged in a one-year period to the federal grant programs, including We the People. Of that $7.4 million, auditors found $1.2 million of the spending was not allowed under federal regulations, and another $4.7 million couldn't be supported by proper documentation. That's a whopping 80 percent of charges that were either unallowable, or unsupported.

 

 

Source: By Joe Davidson, Washington Post, Wednesday, November 18, 2009

 

..... The GAO paints a scary picture of a federal agency that poorly supervises a security force largely composed of private guards. That supervision, or lack of it, is one point the House Committee on Homeland Security is set to take up at a Wednesday hearing on the FPS.

Another subject certain to arise is the overwhelming reliance on private contractors to protect federal facilities. There are about 15,000 private guards, compared with fewer than 1,000 federal law enforcement officers, in the FPS.

The appropriate balance of contract workers and federal employees is a matter of debate in many government venues. But clearly, there are times when protecting federal facilities is "inherently governmental" work -- the standard by which that balance should be judged.

By Alice Lipowicz, Federal Computer Week, Oct 26, 2009

A transparency advocate says the economic stimulus law causes outsourcing federal jobs, but a trade group for contractors isn't convinced.

About $15 billion in federal contracts awarded under the stimulus law have been reported on the official Recovery.gov Web site to date. Of the total, about $800 million worth of contracts is going to 50 companies that are members of the Professional Services Council (PSC), a trade group that represents many federal contractors, Philip Mattera, research director for Good Jobs First, wrote in a blog entry Oct. 22.

Source: GAO Report, GAO-10-58R October 6, 2009
Full Report (PDF, 11 pages)  

Federal agencies rely on a multisector workforce composed of federal employees and contractor personnel to perform services as they carry out their missions. Determining whether to obtain services through insourcing with current or new federal employees, outsourcing with private sector contractors, or cosourcing with a combination of the two is an important economic and strategic decision critical to the federal government's effective and efficient use of taxpayer dollars.

 

..... In particular, the President noted that the line between inherently governmental functions--those that must be performed by federal employees--and commercial activities that may be contracted for has been blurred. In the memorandum, the President directed the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to lead a series of contracting-related efforts, including clarifying when outsourcing for services is and is not appropriate.

 

Source: KEN KUSMER, By The Associated Press, August 21, 2009

 

A pair of Indiana congressman have asked U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to review his agency's approval of the state's privatization and automation of food stamp delivery amid growing legislative and federal scrutiny of the project.  Democratic Reps. Baron Hill and Andre Carson co-signed a letter to Vilsack dated July 30, about a month after the Agriculture Department's food stamp program administrator informed Gov. Mitch Daniels that Indiana's food stamp error rates exceeded U.S. averages last year.

.... FSSA's Barlow did not answer directly when asked what the agency would do if USDA were to revoke its approval for the privatization initiative.

 

 Source: Class Struggle blog at Washington Post, August 22, 2009

 

 The nation's largest teachers union sharply attacked President Obama's most significant school improvement initiative on Friday evening, saying that it puts too much emphasis on a "narrow agenda" centered on charter schools and echoes the Bush administration's "top-down approach" to reform.

Source: Congressional Research Service, July 22, 2009


Summary

Many overseas federal contractors are covered by the Defense Base Act (DBA), which mandates that they provide workers compensation insurance for their employees. As the U.S. military has increased operations in Iraq, the size of the DBA program has grown. Since September 2001, there have been 49,472 DBA cases, including 1,584 cases involving the deaths of contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nearly $200 million in cash and medical benefits were paid to DBA claimants in 2008.

Source: By ELLEN E. SCHULTZ, Wall Street Journal (subscription), August 11, 2009


Executive pay at government contractors is drawing scrutiny from federal auditors, who have questioned some companies about compensation and pensions they have charged taxpayers.

The questions come amid a broader examination of executive pay, especially at financial companies receiving taxpayer-funded bailouts. Contractors also receive government money, though until recently the question of how much of it has gone to executive pay hasn't been a big issue for lawmakers or auditors.

Source: Washington Business Journal - by Kent Hoover Washington Bureau Chief, Monday, August 10, 2009, 2:10pm EDT


The White House directed federal agencies to cut spending on contracts by 7 percent and track contractor performance through a new government-wide database.

The measures are aimed at saving the federal government $40 billion a year, according to the Office of Management and Budget. Last year the federal government awarded more than $500 billion in contracts to more than 160,000 contractors.

..... Under the guidance, agencies will be required to review their existing contracts and develop a plan to cut 3.5 percent in baseline contract spending in fiscal 2010 and another 3.5 percent in 2011. Dollars going to no-bid contracts and cost-reimbursement contracts should be reduced by 10 percent, according to the guidance.

Source: By Joe Davidson, Washington Post, Wednesday, July 29, 2009

 

The White House Office of Management and Budget is directing federal agencies to take a series of actions designed to reduce the government's growing reliance on outside contractors. 

In memoranda scheduled for release Wednesday and in September, the OMB will outline steps the Obama administration hopes will help save $40 billion annually through improved acquisition practices. Department and agency heads are being told to cut contract spending by 3.5 percent in each of the next two fiscal years.  Among the strategies outlined in three memos the OMB will issue Wednesday are policies intended to strengthen the federal acquisition workforce and to return some work now done by outsiders to federal employees.