Download Locations:
Summary:
This report examines the issues surrounding the Walter Reed public-private competition conducted under Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A76 and its potential impact on future Department of Defense (DOD) competitions. Circular A-76 is a policy and a process first initiated in 1966 that was designed to determine whether federal employees or private sector contractors are best to perform activities deemed commercial. A series of articles that first appeared in the Washington Post chronicled the dilapidated conditions and the substandard medical treatment afforded to returning veterans. Media reports surrounding the competition have suggested that one possible contributing factor to the Walter Reed controversy was the decision to privatize base support services. What caused the problems at Walter Reed? To what extent were the problems related to the A-76 competition? Did it go badly because A-76 is an inherently flawed policy, or was it a convergence of events? Should Congress draw any conclusions from the outcome of the Walter Reed competition for future competitions on military medical facilities? While it may be hard to draw conclusions of cause and effect, there may be lessons learned applicable to future competitions. Some have suggested that constrained Army resources, due to a convergence of events, may have caused and/or contributed to the problems in the competition and led to the attrition of skilled base support services staff. Other factors that may have affected the process were the entry of the United States into combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, a 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission recommendation for the consolidation of Army and Navy military medical services into a single tertiary hospital at the campus of the Bethesda Naval Hospital (effectively closing the Walter Reed campus), a surge in the number of outpatient medical care visits for veterans returning from the war, and the Army's push to achieve the Bush Administration's competitive sourcing goals. P.L. 110-181, the FY2008 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), includes several provisions that affect A-76 competitions. H.R. 5658, the Housepassed version of the FY2009 NDAA, contains several new provisions which could impact the conduct of future competitions, including Section 321, which would limit the conduct of A-76 competitions to 540 days (about 18 months); Section 322, which would require the analysis and development of a single government-wide definition for the term "inherently governmental function;" and Section 325, which would temporarily suspend DOD A-76 competitions and prevent the conversion of civilian functions to performance by contractors. This report will be updated as events warrant.
