In Job Competitions, Bet The Feds To Win The Smarty Joneses of the federal government are turning the Bush administration’s competitive sourcing initiative into a bigger runaway than the Preakness. While unions have accused the administration of favoring contractors, the Office of Management and Budget reports federal employees won 89% of the jobs that were opened for public-private competition during fiscal 2003. The competitions involved 21,903 positions. “The deck is being stacked against private companies,” said Chris Jahn, president of the Contract Services Association of America. “At some point, if these competitions continue to be drastically one-sided, the private sector will stop playing. The taxpayer will be the loser in the long run.” OMB said the competitions produced more than $1 billion in savings over the next five years, or about $12,000 for each job competed. “Civilian agencies across government are positioning themselves to improve many of their day-to-day operations through the use of public-private competition,” it said in a report to Congress. In a statement, the National Treasury Employees Unions called the savings “fiction” and urged an independent review. The administration is hoping the results will head off congressional restrictions on its competitive sourcing initiative. The report shows that agencies concentrated on small units with 65 or fewer employees in 2003; they completed 570 streamlined competitions in those small units compared with 92 standard competitions involving larger numbers of employees. OMB said it expects to see more large competitions now that civilian agencies have gained some experience with the process. An additional 17 streamlined competitions and 56 standard competitions were still in progress at the end of the fiscal year. There is no standard format for reporting the types of jobs being competed, but OMB said, “It appears that attention is being focused on commonly available commercial services where there are likely to be numerous capable and highly competitive private sector providers worthy of comparison to agency providers -- such as information technology services, logistics, and property management. The range of activities is broad and includes both low and high technology services.” Agencies reported they are planning competitions involving nearly 23,000 employees in fiscal 2004. The OMB report is available at www.omb.gov . Copies of individual agency reports will be made available at www.results.gov .