The Washington Post is running a series of articles on the DC government’s attempts to deal with youth offenders. The DC government hired a contractor to perform tasks normally performed by the government. Take a look at the article Firm's Lack Of Control Has Deadly Consequence and the excerpt below.
Re-Direct Inc. was hired by the District to provide juveniles convicted of crimes with a refuge of counseling and structure. Instead, teenagers living in the company's group homes and apartments received little help and were allowed to roam free. By the time the for-profit company declared bankruptcy this year, six of the teenagers had been slain. Four were killed on the streets, two shot in the head inside their apartment. A seventh had committed murder. Others were in prison for robbery and assault.
What procedures were being performed by the DC government to ensure that results were actually being achieved? It is difficult to believe that anyone was paying attention.
Now, take a look at OMB Circular A-76 (If you can figure A-76 out, you’ve got a future in the federal government.) Scared yet? You should be. Contracting out is not a panacea. As written, A-76 will have spectacular successes and spectacular failures. The party in power will tell you about the successes and the party out of power will tell you about the failures.
The procedures in A-76 begin with dividing jobs into inherently governmental functions or commercial activities. If you live in the Washington DC area, you may know someone who is afraid of losing their job due to A-76, particularly if they work in the IT field. Why pick on the IT field? It is fashionable in the federal government to contract out IT functions.
The focus of A-76 should be on measurable results. If the end results of an inherently governmental function are easily measurable, then contract out the function. It is not important whether a function is inherently governmental or a commercial activity. It only matters whether you can measure success easily. If you cannot measure success easily, then you are stuck with alternative measures traditionally used by the government such as the weight of the regulations or the length of the regulations or.....
Do you ever feel like criticizing the way the way the military is running the war in Iraq? RTFM--> http://www.smallwars.quantico.usmc.mil/sw_manual.cfm.
You know those students are not going to get a change in the government by themselves. You know how much work goes into coordinating the government’s responses to the protests by the students. You know how to slow down something that should not be done. You know how to prevent something that should not happen. As one Bureaucrat to another, it is time.
First Posts are very important. First Posts set the tone for your weblog and should catch a reader’s interest. Given the importance of the First Post, I’ve decided to write the First Post later. After I’ve written appropriate bureaucratic regulations and when I have more time.
Thanks to Kathy for setting up the BLOGHOUSE and, yes, I did do the install of MT by myself. Can’t you tell?