Improving Management of the Competitive Sourcing Program

The 2001 President’s Management Agenda included a governmentwide initiative—known as competitive sourcing—that aims to improve government efficiency and reduce costs of government programs by promoting competition between federal employees and private-sector organizations. Our work on USDA’s Forest Service has shown the following:

• The Forest Service lacks a realistic strategic plan and adequate guidance to help ensure it can effectively implement its competitive sourcing program. For example, the Forest Service lacks sufficient guidance on identifying key work activities that should be excluded from competitions.

  Highlights of GAO-08-195 (PDF)

• The Forest Service lacks a strategy on how to assess the cumulative effect that competitions could have on its ability to fight wildland fires.

  Highlights of GAO-08-195 (PDF)

• The Forest Service lacked sufficiently complete and reliable cost data for fiscal years 2004 through 2006 to demonstrate its compliance with statutory spending limits on its competitive sourcing activities and accurately report competitive sourcing savings to Congress.

  Highlights of GAO-08-195 (PDF)

^ Back to topWhat Needs to Be Done

The Forest Service needs to

• revise the Green Plan—the Service’s competitive sourcing strategic plan—to establish an implementation schedule that takes into account resource limitations;
• develop clear guidance on when and how to identify inherently governmental and core-commercial activities, so that they are excluded from competitive sourcing competitions; and
• develop a strategy for assessing the cumulative effect of competitive sourcing competitions on its firefighting and emergency response capabilities.

  Highlights of GAO-08-195 (PDF)

^ Back to topKey Reports

Forest Service: Better Planning, Guidance, and Data Are Needed to Improve Management of the Competitive Sourcing Program

GAO-08-195, January 22, 2008

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