Agencies now rely on private companies to do significant portions of their workloads.
The Energy Department depends almost exclusively on contractors to clean up nuclear waste. And many agencies use outside groups to maintain and provide support for their computer networks. The Defense Department accounts for 67 percent of the contracts, up from 65 percent in 1998. Lockheed alone represented more than a third of that amount. Morrison Knudsen rose from number 74 in fiscal 1998 to 15th place in 1999, while BNFL jumped from position 106 in 1998 to number 23 in 1999.