White House Drops Contracting Goals

The White House has backed off its goal to have half of all commercial-type federal jobs considered for possible conversion by contractors, a policy the administration had touted as a cornerstone of improved management practices but which quickly became a lightning rod for criticism from employee groups and some in Congress. The goal had its origins in the 2000 presidential campaign, and while no timetable ever was set-beyond competing 15 percent of such jobs by the end of this fiscal year-critics of contracting practices denounced the initiative as creating a goal that agencies would have to follow regardless of whether it was good management practice. Agencies were evaluated for purposes of the administration’s management “scorecard” on how many jobs they were considering. Legislative proposals to bar the use of numeric goals led to several battles between the White House and Congress. The administration says it will now let individual agencies set their own targets and will judge them on how well they are meeting those goals and how quickly they get the comparisons done.