Can We Contract Out the Human Capital Issue?

By: Joseph L. Kull, CGFM

Joseph L. Kull, CGFM, a member of AGA’s Washington, D.C. Chapter, is a director in the Washington Federal Practice for PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC.

So can we contract out the human capital issue? Sounds crazy, doesn't it? But, hey, why not? If we can contract out a large part of our security force in the Mid-East, then contracting accounting should be a slam dunk.

Yes, we have a human capital crisis on our hands. Not a day goes by when the topic isn't in the news, especially in the federal sector. We are facing a tsunami of retirements and we’ve known that for years, and now we act surprised, like these people were NOT going to retire? They may be old but they’re not crazy.

We then changed the retirement package for feds with the idea of making them more portable so they can go back to the private sector—no more golden handcuffs that tied many of us up in the system for at least 30 years. So now they are portable and they are transporting themselves back to the private sector to work for contractors.

Why? Because at about the same time as the pension change occurred, there was also a big wave of contracting out of government services. It was called OMB Circular A-76 and it changed the landscape, didn’t it? More and more administrative functions got “A-76’d,” reinforced by streamlining initiatives like NPR and PMA.

No doubt more and more work will be contracted out. Is that the right way to go, the best for our citizens and our country? How are we going to find the right people? Can hired guns—literally and figuratively—do as good a job as bureaucrats? What about organizational knowledge, or how about the loyalty that comes from believing in the agency and its mission? Not to be old fashioned, but how about, very simply, the President Kennedy “ask not what your country can do for you…” kind of call to public service?

There is a price to pay for a government of bureaucrats. Seems there is also a price to pay, literally and figuratively, for a government that is dependent on the private sector for basic services.

In the long run, will we have a better, more efficient, effective government with more contractors and fewer feds? In the long run, do we have a choice? And, regardless, WHERE will the people come from? Are we on a slippery slope here, with perhaps even the continuity of government?

TOMORROW: Patricia E. Healy, CGFM, Executive Consultant, CGI Federal; recently retired as Deputy CFO of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, on "Too Many Chiefs? Do We Need to Change the Way We Govern Our Federal Government Support Operations?"

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