One military base, which Soloway declined to name, was unable to attract contractor bids for an outsourcing project involving as many as 600 jobs. The base commander interviewed some contractors and discovered that many had bad procurement experiences with the base in the past. Base acquisition officials hadn t sat down and talked with a wide array of contractors, Soloway said. That s what you need to do. Another problem is that Defense agencies and military services often fail to adequately track and measure costs of work done to ensure that decisions on outsourcing are cost-effective, said Jerry Stark, the Marine Corps deputy director for installation reform.
Some contractors avoid participating in job competitions because of a perception they are unfair.
In some cases, employees whose jobs would be affected by the outcome of a competition are allowed to preside over the competition, Soloway said. And some DoD agencies avoid holding job competitions for jobs that are obviously not inherently governmental, such as child-care and fitness center positions. In some cases, we re not really serious, Soloway said. And that s a real problem. Commentary Copyright 2000 Federal Times.