[CPEO-MEF] Army Weighs Privatizing Close to 214,000 Jobs

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Army Weighs Privatizing Close to 214,000 Jobs
One in Six Workers Could Be Affected
By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 3, 2002; Page A01

The Army is considering whether to contract out nearly 214,000 military
and civilian employee positions in what would be the largest transfer of
jobs to the private sector by a government agency, Pentagon officials
said.

If successful, the Army's initiative -- undertaken in the name of
focusing more of the military's resources on national defense -- could
affect more than one in six Army jobs around the world. And it could
provide a major boost to the Bush administration's efforts to move large
blocs of government work into the private sector.

Although similar attempts to privatize government jobs date back
decades, the Army plan is much more ambitious. On the line are the jobs
of 58,727 military personnel and 154,910 civilian employees who perform
such support functions as accounting, legal counsel, maintenance and
communications.

Army Secretary Thomas E. White wrote in an Oct. 4 internal memo that the
Army needs to direct as many resources as it can to anti-terrorism
efforts and let support jobs go to the private sector, where the
administration believes they can be done at lower cost.

"The Army must focus its energies and talents on our core competencies
-- functions we perform better than anyone else -- and seek to obtain
other needed products or services from the private sector where it makes
sense," White wrote in the memo.

All told, the Army currently employs about 1.3 million people, including
222,000 civilians.

Federal unions denounced the Army plan as a thinly veiled attempt to do
away with their jobs and benefit defense contractors. And some analysts
said it raised questions about the Defense Department's capability to
adequately manage its growing workforce of contract personnel.

This article can be viewed at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59002-2002Nov2.html

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