Bush administration officials, agency managers, industry consultants, General Accounting Office experts and union representatives agree the panel has a lot of ground to cover. The discussion highlighted topics likely to be considered by the GAO panel. If a team of federal employees wins a competition, the work should be subject to contractor competition again in five years. This is the case now when contractors win a competition. Unions say yes, contractors say no.
Agencies lose many talented workers uncertain about the fates of their jobs.
Agencies say they need better guidance on how to determine which jobs must be done by government workers and which can be done by the private sector. Contractors, on the other hand, complain many agencies have too liberal a definition for what constitutes an inherently governmental job. Most take between two and four years. Many people believe they can be done quicker, but there are concerns by some that shortening them would lead to bad decisions. The government and the private sector use different accounting systems.