Greater Accountability Planned in Contracting-Out

One element of the Bush administration’s recently announced planned revisions in Office of Management and Budget Circular A-76, the guidance on converting federal jobs to contractor performance, is increased agency accountability, including stricter oversight by senior officials. In certain cases if an agency misses a deadline its bid could be disqualified or the work could be converted directly to contract. Also, if the public sector operation wins the competition it will be held to what will effectively be a contract, which generally will be good for up to five years with options for the contracting officer to extend it, but only if performance goals are met.