AFGE Bid Protests Save More Than 500 West Point Jobs

UNION LAUDS WORK BY REP. HINCHEY AND CHAIRMAN MURTHA TO STOP COSTLY A-76
PROCESS

WASHINGTON, Oct. 22 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The nation's largest federal
employees union, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), today
commended Representative Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) for his leadership in the
fight to stop efforts throughout the Department of Defense (DoD) that would
put hundreds of civilian defense employees including those at West Point
Military Academy out of work. Recent Government Accountability Office (GAO)
decisions underscore the importance of Congressman Hinchey's fight against
privatization. AFGE launched two successful bid protests with the GAO to save
the jobs of 530 civilian defense employees at West Point. The GAO decided
this week that the Army should keep 394 public works positions at the academy.
An earlier GAO decision preserved 137 custodial jobs at West Point.

Working closely with House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman John
Murtha (D-PA), Representative Hinchey has led the fight to stop the Department
of Defense from carrying out OMB Circular A-76 privatization studies that were
started under the Bush Administration. It is illegal for any agency to begin
new privatization studies. However, the prohibition does not apply to
privatization studies that had been announced earlier. Other agencies had
cancelled their privatization studies in progress or converted them to
internal reengineering studies. The Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD)
has thus far stubbornly refused to grant several internal requests to cancel
ongoing privatization studies. According to the DoD, there are at least 15
privatization studies still in effect, unfairly threatening the jobs of almost
3,000 civilian employees.

Representative Hinchey included a provision in the House FY10 Defense
Appropriations Bill that would suspend DoD's ongoing A-76 studies, the last
remnants of the discredited wholesale privatization perpetrated during the
previous administration. House and Senate conferees will decide whether
Representative Hinchey's provision should be included in the final conference
report.

"There is no question," declared AFGE National President John Gage, "that the
fight waged by Representative Hinchey and Chairman Murtha has engendered
unprecedented resistance within DoD to the Bush Administration's shameful A-76
legacy. Representative Hinchey's leadership was indispensable in impressing
upon GAO the seriousness of violating federal laws in the A-76 context. The
bid protest process has not worked to protect the interests of taxpayers and
federal employees to the extent intended by authors of the law that gave
federal employees the same appeal rights that have long been enjoyed by
contractors. AFGE, working closely with some courageous management officials
and attorneys, has racked up two big victories at West Point, saving more than
500 employees, but we know that the foundation for our success was laid by
Representative Hinchey."

The GAO decision illustrates the failure of the A-76 process as implemented by
DoD. The Army started working on this study in 2002. After 7 years and
likely millions of dollars in consultant fees and staff time, the Army could
not provide any evidence to GAO that a contractor is more efficient than the
federal employees. GAO gives agencies plenty of deference in procurement
decisions, but federal rules require these decisions to be reasonable,
consistent with stated evaluation factors, and adequately documented. The
Army failed all three tests.

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is the largest federal
employee union, representing 600,000 workers in the federal government and the
government of the District of Columbia.

SOURCE American Federation of Government Employees

Enid Doggett of the American Federation of Government Employees,
+1-202-639-6419