UNION LAUDS WORK BY REP. HINCHEY AND CHAIRMAN MURTHA TO STOP COSTLY A-76 PROCESS
WASHINGTON, Oct. 22 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The nation's largest federal employees union, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), today commended Representative Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) for his leadership in the fight to stop efforts throughout the Department of Defense (DoD) that would put hundreds of civilian defense employees including those at West Point Military Academy out of work. Recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) decisions underscore the importance of Congressman Hinchey's fight against privatization. AFGE launched two successful bid protests with the GAO to save the jobs of 530 civilian defense employees at West Point. The GAO decided this week that the Army should keep 394 public works positions at the academy. An earlier GAO decision preserved 137 custodial jobs at West Point.
Working closely with House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman John Murtha (D-PA), Representative Hinchey has led the fight to stop the Department of Defense from carrying out OMB Circular A-76 privatization studies that were started under the Bush Administration. It is illegal for any agency to begin new privatization studies. However, the prohibition does not apply to privatization studies that had been announced earlier. Other agencies had cancelled their privatization studies in progress or converted them to internal reengineering studies. The Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) has thus far stubbornly refused to grant several internal requests to cancel ongoing privatization studies. According to the DoD, there are at least 15 privatization studies still in effect, unfairly threatening the jobs of almost 3,000 civilian employees.
Representative Hinchey included a provision in the House FY10 Defense Appropriations Bill that would suspend DoD's ongoing A-76 studies, the last remnants of the discredited wholesale privatization perpetrated during the previous administration. House and Senate conferees will decide whether Representative Hinchey's provision should be included in the final conference report.
"There is no question," declared AFGE National President John Gage, "that the fight waged by Representative Hinchey and Chairman Murtha has engendered unprecedented resistance within DoD to the Bush Administration's shameful A-76 legacy. Representative Hinchey's leadership was indispensable in impressing upon GAO the seriousness of violating federal laws in the A-76 context. The bid protest process has not worked to protect the interests of taxpayers and federal employees to the extent intended by authors of the law that gave federal employees the same appeal rights that have long been enjoyed by contractors. AFGE, working closely with some courageous management officials and attorneys, has racked up two big victories at West Point, saving more than 500 employees, but we know that the foundation for our success was laid by Representative Hinchey."
The GAO decision illustrates the failure of the A-76 process as implemented by DoD. The Army started working on this study in 2002. After 7 years and likely millions of dollars in consultant fees and staff time, the Army could not provide any evidence to GAO that a contractor is more efficient than the federal employees. GAO gives agencies plenty of deference in procurement decisions, but federal rules require these decisions to be reasonable, consistent with stated evaluation factors, and adequately documented. The Army failed all three tests.
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is the largest federal employee union, representing 600,000 workers in the federal government and the government of the District of Columbia.
SOURCE American Federation of Government Employees
American Federation of Government Employees
