Study: Few Jobs Lost in A-76 Competitions Researchers at the University of Maryland say few federal employees have lost their jobs as a result of competitive sourcing. The report, “Competitive Sourcing: What Happens to Federal Employees?” by Jacques S. Gansler and William Lucyshyn of the university’s Center for Public Policy and Private Enterprise, looked at all job competitions conducted by the Defense Department in the past 10 years; until the Bush administration, civilian agencies had conducted very few competitions. “In examining DOD data, it is clear that much of the claims of the negative impact of competitive sourcing on federal employees are unfounded,” the authors reported. “Of the 65,151 civilian positions studied since 1995, only 5 percent were reduced through the involuntary separation of federal employees. Instead positions were more likely to be reduced in the winning bids through the transfer of employees to other government jobs or through retirement.” Whether contractors or government employees won the competition, they said, “estimated cost savings in the winning bids averaged 44% of the baseline costs.” Chris Jahn, president of the Contract Services Association of America, said the report should spur Congress to drop restrictions on competitive sourcing. But federal employee union leaders said the Defense Department’s data is unreliable. The General Accounting Office criticized the accuracy of the data in several reports. Union representatives also accused the authors of bias. Gansler headed competitive sourcing efforts in the Clinton administration as undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics. The researchers found contractors prevailed in a majority of DOD competitions over the 10-year period, but in 2003 in-house bids won nearly two-thirds of the competitions. OMB reported in-house teams won nearly 90% of competitions government-wide in 2003.