Quote of the Day
By Tom Shoop | Thursday, October 04, 2007 | 11:49 AM
By Tom Shoop | Thursday, October 04, 2007 | 11:49 AM
"The rapid increase of federally contracted dollars—100 percent since 2000—makes outsourcing the fastest growing component of discretionary spending. The government’s preference for using outside contractors to provide goods and services makes careful scrutiny of the process and the decisions more important than in the past. At present, loose rules, lack of competition, and limited accountability permit so-called ‘bad actors’ to receive contracts that put taxpayers and our money at risk."
--From "Forgiving Fraud and Failure," a new report by U.S. PIRG, the federation of state Public Interest Research Groups.
Comments
In this day and age, "outsourcing" refers almost exclusively to the transfer of labor activity from inside the U.S. to worksites in foreign countries. It's been years now since I've heard anyone use "outsourcing" to describe letting a competitive non-union workforce *steal* work from hard-working closed shops who are entitled to a lifetime of make-work. PIRG is taking a word that is already disgraced in the public's eye and attempting to reappropriate it for shameful purposes.
If PIRG really wants to rally public opinion to their side, they should consider a move to call any public-private competition the "suicide bombing" of federal jobs. As in, "hey, did you hear that Treasury is now letting CONTRACTORS cut the grass in front of the office? Yeah, they totally went 9/11 on their own employees."
Disgusted guvvie | Friday, October 05, 2007 | 08:16 AMA lot of bad acting inside the government allows a lot of bad actors outside the government to take advantage of the system. The risk to tax payer money seems to mainly be the result of bureaucrats from the White House and the Congress down to the GS-4 who abuse their authority and ignore their responsibilities.
If we create opportunities for waste and fraud, aren't we just inviting it?
Robert M. | Friday, October 05, 2007 | 07:52 AMABOUT THIS BLOG
Government Executive Editor Tom Shoop takes a look at news and events affecting the federal bureaucracy, from the perspective of a longtime observer of government.
feedARCHIVES
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- August 2005
- July 2005
- June 2005
- May 2005
- April 2005
- March 2005
- February 2005
- January 2005
- December 2004
- November 2004
- October 2004
CATEGORIES
- Budget
- Comings and Goings
- Congress
- Defense
- Factoid of the Day
- Fedblog
- General News
- Government Operations
- Headline of the Day
- Homeland Security
- Intelligence
- Management
- Oversight
- Pay and Benefits
- Photo of the Day
- Political Appointees
- Press Release of the Day
- Procurement
- Quote of the Day
- The White House
- The Workforce
- The Workplace