Military seeks head count of contractors in Iraq

[Robbien]

The Army Central Command and Multi-National Force-Iraq are undertaking a new effort to develop a full accounting of government contractors living or working in Iraq, seeking to fill an information gap that remains despite previous efforts. A memorandum issued Tuesday by Robert Burton, associate administrator of the Office of Management and Budget's Office of Federal Procurement Policy, asked military services and federal agencies to assist Central Command and MNF-I by providing information by June 1.

The request seeks to establish data for contractors including the company and agreement worked on; the camp or base at which they are located; the services such as mail, emergency medical care or meals they obtain from the military; their specialty area; whether they carry a weapon; and government contracting personnel associated with them.

Previous efforts to gauge the size of federal contractor workforces have met with little success. An initiative launched in 2000 to count Army contractors ran afoul of the 1995 Paperwork Reduction Act, becoming bogged down in assessments of the associated burden and benefits.

. . .

Paul Light, a professor at the Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service at New York University, has tried to estimate the size of the contractor workforce for the entire federal government. He said industry has disparaged his figures, which are very rough estimates based on the total dollars that go into contracting divided by average wages, with various adjustments, but has declined to provide more accurate numbers.

"I think industry doesn't want to do a hard count because they don't want people to know how many people get their paychecks, indirectly, from Uncle Sam," Light said. By his count -- which he acknowledged overestimates the number of contractors -- that would be more than six million federal contractors and grantees, roughly triple the size of the full-time federal workforce.

http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=34125&dcn=todaysnews

[bemildred]

1. We need some "transparency" here. nt

[babylonsister]

2. SEEKS head count? They don't KNOW who/what they're

paying for? Beyond disgusting, unorganized, wasteful, inept, etc.:grr: :grr: