About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

GAO-10-58R 1 (2009-10-06)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaanpr0001 and id is 1 raw text is: &GA AG A 0 Accountabilty I ntegrity ReiaiMity United States Government Accountability Office Washington, DC 20548 October 6, 2009 Congressional Committees Subject: Civilian Agencies' Development and Implementation of Insourcing Guidelines 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. The executive branch has encouraged federal agencies since the mid-1950s to obtain commercially available services from the private sector when outsourcing is cost-effective. In the last 5 fiscal years, civilian agencies have on average annually obligated about $100 billion to obtain a range of services from contractors. However, in March 2009, the President issued a memorandum on government contracting that, among other matters, expressed concern about the federal workforce as to whether agencies have become overreliant on contractors and have appropriately outsourced services. 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. Congress, also concerned with the federal workforce, in March 2009 enacted section 736 of the Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2009,1 which requires federal agencies, with the exception of the Department of Defense (DOD), to devise and implement guidelines for insourcing new and contracted-out functions by mid-July 2009. The statute further requires that we report on the implementation of section 736. In response, we identified (1) the actions taken by OMB to assist affected agencies as they develop insourcing guidelines and (2) the status of selected civilian agencies' efforts to develop and implement insourcing guidelines. To address our objectives, we interviewed and reviewed information provided by officials from OMB and nine agencies on the status of their insourcing efforts pursuant to section 736. The nine agencies were selected because they collectively accounted for about 80 percent of the fiscal year 2008 funds obligated on service contracts by civilian agencies.2 In addition, we reviewed OMB's guidance issued in July 2009 as to whether it is consistent with statutory requirements for executive agencies' guidelines. We conducted our work from July 2009 to October 2009 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate 1Onmibus Appropriations Act, 2009, Pub. L. No. 111-8, Division D, Title VII, Section 736. 'The nine agencies were the Departments of Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Justice, State, Transportation, and Veterans Affairs, as well as the General Services Administration and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). GAO-10-58R Insourcing Guidelines

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most