International Herald Tribune Editorial - Government inside out

International Herald Tribune Editorial - Government inside out
Copyright by The International Herald Tribune
Published: February 7, 2007


The United States is quickly becoming a government of the contractors, by the contractors and for the contractors. While the private security personnel in Iraq have attracted the most attention, many day-to-day operations are no longer in the hands of federal employees. Functions as disparate as clerical work and tax collection are handled by private companies, while oversight of this always for-profit work is being sorely neglected.

There are plenty of examples of good contracting. The U.S. Interstate Highway System was built in large part by contractors. The problem is that the explosion of government outsourcing under the Bush Administration has not been accompanied by a sufficient increase in civil service personnel to ensure that the work is done without wasting tax dollars.

As Scott Shane and Ron Nixon reported recently in The New York Times, spending on outsourced contracts has nearly doubled under this administration, to roughly $400 billion last year from $207 billion in 2000, while oversight staff levels have remained flat. At the same time, fewer contracts are being put up for competitive bids.

The conventional wisdom holds that outsourcing saves money because the private sector is supposedly more efficient. But if there is to be any chance of cutting costs, that will have to come from competitive bidding. What is most needed is a return to pragmatism, where each decision of whether to use government workers or outside companies is dictated by cost, rather than ideology or political favors.