Outsourcing by the Federal Government

The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) has produced a study of the federal government's use of contractors.  It is a damning report.  Would you believe that the feds contractor work force may be four times as large as its employee workforce?  I use 'may be' because the feds do not have a truly accurate way of counting the number of contractors.  There are a lot of other questions about the use of contractors that cannot be answered with confidence.  We do know, however, that we spend over $320 billion on contractors.  POGO argues that we could save quite a bit by using employees rather than contractors. 

POGO compares the annual compensation of federal workers, private workers and contractors.  I have copied their table of comparisons below.  Yes, the annual compensation of contractors cannot be seen.  However, the first three columns are ratios which indicate the differences between the categories.

These comparisons can be questioned in that some contractors are not employed for a full year.  Yet there are some federal offices which have more contractors than employees.

Like much of government there needs to be a better way of analyzing their operations.

Table 1: Cost Analyses

OPM Series Description	Federal to Private*	Contractor to Federal†	Contractor to Private‡	Full Federal Annual Compensation	Full Private Sector Annual Compensation	Contractor Annual Billing Rates††
Accounting	1.50	2.40	3.60	$124,851	$83,132	$299,374
Auditing	1.47	2.31	3.40	$122,373	$83,132	$283,005
Budget Analysis	.89	2.75	2.43	$110,229	$124,501	$302,661
Building Management	.62	2.38	1.48	$111,564	$179,740	$265,242
Cartography	1.47**	1.46	2.14**	$116,481	$79,219	$169,520
Cemetery Administration Services	1.12	2.83	3.17	$106,124	$94,485	$299,832
Claims Assistance and Examining	.76	4.83	3.66	$57,292	$75,637	$276,598
Computer Engineering	1.04	1.97	2.04	$136,456	$131,415	$268,653
Contracting	.98	2.29	2.24	$113,319	$115,596	$259,106
Correctional Officer	2.17	1.15	2.49	$72,977	$33,598	$83,803
Environmental Protection Specialist	1.20	1.40	1.68	$127,247	$105,964	$177,570
Equal Opportunity Compliance	1.40	2.05	2.87	$125,368	$89,394	$256,381
Facility Operations Services	.90	1.66	1.50	$108,060	$119,449	$179,254
Financial Analysis	1.24	1.30	1.61	$132,262	$106,679	$171,288
Financial Management	1.13	2.05	2.32	$164,218	$145,486	$337,002
Fire Protection and Prevention	1.04**	1.25	1.29**	$65,452	$63,105	$81,702
Food Inspection	1.04**	1.29	1.34**	$58,090	$55,883	$74,963
General Attorney	.79	3.17	2.51	$175,081	$220,924	$554,923
General Inspection, Investigation, Enforcement, and Compliance	1.17	1.62	1.90	$104,712	$89,394	$169,666
Groundskeeper	2.00	.80	1.60	$64,896	$32,396	$51,709
Human Resources Management	1.11	2.05	2.27	$111,711	$100,465	$228,488
Information Technology Management	1.09	1.59	1.73	$124,663	$114,818	$198,411
Language Specialist	1.80**	1.92	3.46**	$110,014	$61,010	$211,203
Logistics Management [Deployment]	.94	1.76	1.66	$116,047	$123,349	$204,443
Logistics Management [Planning]	1.19	1.46	1.74	$116,047	$97,269	$168,938
Management and Program Analysis	1.15	2.15	2.48	$124,602	$108,132	$268,258
Mechanical Engineering	1.15	1.50	1.72	$126,177	$109,961	$189,197
Medical Records Technician	1.26	.99	1.24	$58,641	$46,705	$57,782
Nurse	1.16	1.65	1.92	$105,714	$91,042	$174,803
Police	1.24	1.34	1.66	$71,256	$57,533	$95,659
Program Management	.97	1.56	1.50	$173,551	$179,740	$269,901
Quality Assurance	.94	1.09	1.03	$98,939	$104,891	$107,786
Security Guard	1.53	1.36	2.08	$50,257	$32,953	$68,515
Statistics	1.15	1.66	1.91	$125,192	$108,586	$207,563
Technical Writing and Editing	1.25	1.08	1.35	$103,801	$82,873	$112,091
Average Cost Premiums	1.20	1.83	2.09