Federal Efficiency No Longer an Oxymoron
by Joe?Pulcinella
The first paragraph of this Washington Post article had me hooked:
Federal civil servants proved they could do their work better and more cheaply than private contractors nearly 90 percent of the time in job competitions last year, according to the Office of Management and Budget.
I can see how this could be true if you were to hire a private contractor to administer such a boondoggle as Amtrak but the private sector would not even attempt it. If, for example, UPS or FedEx were to take on private mail delivery, it would probably take shape as something completely unrecognizable as today's post office.
"Anytime there is anything close to a fair competition, we do well," said John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employee union. Gage also said there should be an independent review of projected savings.
Coffee came out of my nose when I read this one. Does Gage imply that a private company should be under the same restraints that strangle government operations such heavy-handed unions, outrageous pensions and obscene overstaffing?
