President Bush identified 5 Government-wide Initiatives
in his 2002 Management Agenda(http://www.ma.mbe.doe.gov/a-76/PresMgmtInit.pdf):
1.Strategic Management of Human Capital
2.Competitive Sourcing
3.Improved Financial Performance
4.Expanded Electronic Government
5.Budget and Performance Integration
This web site is established to provide information
about the Competitive Sourcing activities being conducted at NIH in support
of the President’s Management Agenda’s Competitive Sourcing
Initiative. The Competitive Sourcing Initiative is intended “to
achieve efficient and effective competition between public and private
sources, the Administration has committed itself to simplifying and improving
the procedures for evaluating public and private sources, to better publicizing
the activities subject to competition, and to ensuring senior level agency
attention to the promotion of competition.”
The purpose of Competitive Sourcing
Program (sometimes referred to as the Commercial Activities,
or CA, A-76 Program) is to implement OMB Circular A-76 http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/circulars/a076/a076.html
to create cost savings for NIH. A-76 mandates that the government
obtain commercially available goods and services from the
private sector when it makes economic sense to do so. Government
policy dating back to 1955 establishes that the Government
will only provide what its citizens (i.e. the private sector)
cannot.
In accordance with the Federal Activities
Inventory Reform (FAIR) Act http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/procurement/fair-index.html
, agencies are assessing the susceptibility to competition
of the activities their workforces are performing. After
review by OMB, the agencies will provide their inventories
to Congress and make them available to the public. Interested
parties may challenge the omission or inclusion of any particular
activity.
NIH is committed to fulfilling the
President’s Management Agenda and is in the early
stages of the A-76 process http://emissary.acq.osd.mil/inst/share.nsf
We will be adding to the http://A-76.nih.gov
website as new information becomes available. Links to other
A-76 websites are provided here to give more information
about A-76. Some Definitions of Terms used for the A-76
process are provided here. We have also provided some frequently
asked questions (FAQs) and answers about A-76. If you have
questions about A-76 you can write to us at a76@od.nih.gov. Points of Contact for the A-76 program at NIH are also provided here.
Email questions/comments: a76@od.nih.gov