DoDEA

ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA — October 17, 2005 — The results regarding the Fort Knox, KY "A-76 Competitive Sourcing Competitions," were announced Thursday when the district superintendent opened envelopes and read the results of the Streamlined Competition cost comparisons to the potentially affected employees of Department of Defense (DoD) Domestic Dependent Elementary and Secondary Schools (DDESS).

In one of the two instances, the in-house government bid is lower than the Estimated Contract Bid and the Performance Decision is to have the government employees continue to perform the work contained in the Performance Work Statement (grounds maintenance). The determination was made by comparing the Estimated Contractor Bid that was developed through market research, with the in-house government bid.

The second competition was for the logistics functions at Fort Knox. In this case, the Estimated Contractor Bid was lower than the government's bid. However, a decision to contract for this workload has not been made at this time. DDESS will develop a formal solicitation and invite bids from private sector contractors. We anticipate this process will take six to nine months.

The Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) will begin the implementation of the Most Efficient Organization (MEO) for the grounds maintenance function. While government employees will continue to perform these functions, this implementation may result in fewer government positions than in the original organization. Further information on the number of positions contained in the MEO and whether or not any adverse actions will be necessary, will be available within the next 30 calendar days.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) published a revision to Circular A-76 on May 29, 2003. This revision focused on making public-private competitions more in line with the current Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) and regular procurement actions. It also emphasized that "commercial activities should be subject to the forces of competition."

The purpose of OMB Circular A-76 is to improve productivity and enhance economy of work performed by the government. The OMB circular mandates that whenever commercial sector performance of a Government operated commercial activity is permissible, comparison of the cost of contracting and the cost of in-house performance shall be performed to determine who will do the work. When conducting cost comparisons, agencies must ensure that all costs are considered and that these costs are realistic and fair.

On June 20, 2005, Dr. Joseph D. Tafoya, DoDEA Director, announced the beginning of two Streamlined Competitions. The purpose of the competitions was to determine whether work currently performed by U.S. government employees should remain in house or be contracted to the private sector.

In compliance with OMB Circular A-76 the government prepared a MEO for each of these two Streamlined Competitions. The cost of each MEO became the government's bid for the work contained in the applicable Performance Work Statement.