Federal agencies still have the green light to bring contractor jobs in-house, despite the Defense Department's recent announcement that it will abandon such efforts, Government Executive reports. Daniel Gordon, administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy at the Office of Management and Budget, said on Friday the Obama administration does not anticipate issuing guidance that would prohibit agencies from adding federal employees to do work currently being performed by contractors.
Last July, the administration issued guidance that called on agencies to conduct pilot insourcing programs focusing on one job field that potentially overrelies on contractors. Gordon testified at a hearing in May that more than half of the agencies identified acquisition and information technology organizations for their pilot programs.
Jeffrey Neal, chief human capital officer at the Homeland Security Department, told Wired Workplace last week that DHS has conducted a pilot that analyzed the work functions and examined whether there was sufficient workforce capacity in the Office of the Chief Information Officer. DHS has since established a team led by a senior executive in the CHCO office to work on the agency's "balanced workforce strategy," and DHS also issued departmentwide guidance on the program in July, he said. "I issued more detailed information to the components, and we've put together an executive steering group to oversee this effort," he said. "We're going to be moving forward in a way that will create a repeatable process for workforce sourcing decisions."
Brittany Ballenstedt
Brittany Ballenstedt writes Nextgov's Wired Workplace blog, which delves into the issues facing employees who work in the federal information technology sector. Before joining Nextgov, Brittany covered federal pay and benefits issues as a staff correspondent for Government Executive and served as an associate editor for National Journal's Technology Daily. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Mansfield University and originally hails from Pennsylvania. She currently lives near Travis Air Force Base, Calif., where her husband is stationed.
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