Letter to the editor

Bureaucratus' appraisal of uncounted/unaccountable government contractors is dead on ["Accounting for contractors," Federal Computer Week, May 15, 2000.]

I have noted a particularly galling specimen. In many instances, government workers retire with "buyouts," then return to what is essentially their former position, but they are hired for it as a "temporary" employee.

Agencies cloak that practice under such subterfuges as CASUs [Cooperative Administrative Support Units], a growing practice. Using this method, the agency hires a "contract employee" through a "temporary" staffing company.

Of course, augmenting staff this way is not confined to retirees. My term for it is "stealth staffing." No agency, to my knowledge, publishes an accounting of their "stealth staffs."

Name withheld upon request

Alexandria, Va.