Pentagon outsources outsourcing studies

The Defense Department hires private firms to help it decide whether to contract out work in 80 percent of outsourcing and privatization studies, the General Accounting Office has found.

DoD has sought private-sector help in 2,391 of 2,989 privatization and outsourcing studies since 1996, GAO reported in "Outsourcing and Privatization: Private-Sector Assistance for Federal Agency Studies" (GGD-99-52R). DoD hires private consultants to perform, or assist in, reviews of activities to determine if those activities should be performed by federal workers or by private contractors.

Some Capitol Hill critics of the Defense Department's push to privatize and outsource work raise eyebrows at the cost of hiring private consultants for privatization studies. For example, the Marine Corps has estimated the cost of outsourcing studies to be $6,700 per position studied for privatization, with 80 percent of that money going to contractor support. Understaffed DoD components feel compelled to call in outside help to speed up notoriously slow outsourcing studies.

The majority of privatization studies for which DoD hired private consultants were for utility systems, GAO found. Of 2,185 utilities studies conducted since 1996, DoD hired private help for 2,080.

GAO also looked at 26 outsourcing studies for information technology support conducted by DoD, the Energy Department, the General Services Administration and NASA. Agencies hired private consultants to conduct 17 of those studies, GAO found.