Hi John & Thread, By ROBERT GEHRKE, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Dozens of Forest Service employees in Utah and Montana were told last March they would be among the first victims of the Bush administration decision to bid out work by government employees to private contractors, who could do it cheaper.
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But...
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A required analysis three months later showed it's going to cost the government $425,000 a year more for the same work that was being done by the 41 members of the Forest Service's Content Analysis Team in Salt Lake City and in Missoula, Mont.
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The Forest Service spent $24 million studying the idea, which was meant to reduce the federal payroll by switching the work to private contractors, assuming they can do it at lower cost. [Geez, you can start a company with $24 million]
In 93 percent of the cases, the Agriculture Department agency found it was cheaper for government employees to do the work.
Worried that the $24 million was being taken out of other Forest Service programs, some lawmakers threatened to cut off all money for the studies. When the White House countered with a veto threat, Congress put strict caps on the privatization effort. Next year, the Forest Service can spend only $5 million for privatizing studies.
"We had to slap them around for that a bit," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D. "They were out wasting the taxpayers' money doing these studies they shouldn't have been doing."
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Regards,
Amy J PS Do you use [ ] or ( ) for inserting your own comments? Which one is more correct than the other? |
