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Washington, D.C.—President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) today said the majority report of the public-private Commercial Activities Panel (CAP), which studied federal contracting out practices, “misses an opportunity to make meaningful recommendations that could measurably improve” the government’s sourcing policies and procedures.

Kelley, who heads the nation’s largest independent union of federal workers, has been the leading opponent of the contracting of federal jobs to the private sector. In particular, she has criticized the arbitrary quotas imposed on federal agencies by this administration to contract out by the end of the next fiscal year 15 percent of jobs considered commercial in nature.

She served as a member of CAP, as did other federal employee representatives, private sector experts, federal agency officials and representatives of contractors. CAP was established by Congress more than a year ago, in part to determine the most reliable, efficient and cost-effective manner in which to deliver government services to the public. It was chaired by U.S. Comptroller General David Walker.

President Kelley, who at the outset of CAP deliberations indicated NTEU’s willingness to entertain and work with any ideas that would improve the federal commercial activity sourcing system for federal workers and American taxpayers, said the majority report of the body fails to do that.

The NTEU leader said she was particularly disappointed that the majority report fails to incorporate the key elements of a package of recommendations debated by the Panel known as the CORE Proposal.

This was a set of recommendations that would track the true costs of contracting activities, ensure full and fair public-private competition, empower agencies to engage in make-or-buy decisions, establish an equitable appellate process and foster the development of high-performing government organizations even as it retained sufficient management discretion. (The CORE Proposal can be found on the NTEU web site.)

The majority report, she said, calls for moving ahead with a new and untested “integrated competition” process based on the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), even though there is no evidence that this new

source selection process will be any more efficient, cost effective or expeditious.

“This new cost/technical tradeoff proposal would allow contractors essentially to write gold-plated government work requirements, and then reward the contractors with lucrative contracts for services the government does not need,” she said.

“The best system for delivery of vital government services,” the NTEU leader said, “is made up of federal agencies that are fully funded for the missions entrusted to them by Congress and the public, and staffed by dedicated, well-trained and fairly compensated federal employees who are fully accountable to the American people for the results of their work.”

As the largest independent federal union, NTEU represents some 150,000 employees in 25 agencies and departments.

For more information visit the NTEU Press Kit Section.