Warfighter support [electronic resource] : a cost comparison of using State Department employees versus contractors for security services in Iraq / [William M. Solis].
Title from p.1 screen (GAO, viewed Mar. 5, 2010). "March 4, 2010." Includes "Related GAO products" (p. 18). Includes bibliographical references. "GAO-10-266R."
Summary:
"The U.S. government's reliance on contractors, including the State Department's and Department of Defense's (DOD) use of private security contractors in Iraq, has been well documented. We and others have examined many of the challenges the government faces using contractors in Iraq, including issues related to the scope of private security contractors' activities, the challenges in providing sufficient oversight, the appropriate accountability processes, and difficulties in conducting background screenings of foreign national contractor employees. (A list of related GAO products can be found at the end of this report.) What has not been so well examined is the comparative cost of using civilian employees or military members versus the cost of using contractors, particularly private security contractors, during contingency operations such as Operation Iraqi Freedom. Generally, when costs have been discussed, the focus has been on the daily rate paid to contractor employees, rather than on the total costs of using State Department or DOD personnel. However, in October 2005, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) issued a study that compared the cost of using military personnel, federal civilians, or contractors to provide logistic support for overseas operations. The study concluded that over a 20-year period, using Army military units would cost roughly 90 percent more than using the contractor. Also, in an August 2008 report on contractor support in Iraq, the Congressional Budget Office conducted a comparison of one contractor's costs to provide private security services in Iraq versus estimated military costs. The report concluded that for the 1-year period beginning June 11, 2004, the costs of the private contractor did not differ greatly from the costs of having a comparable military unit performing similar functions. Because of the broad level of interest by Congress in issues dealing with Iraq, the Comptroller General performed this review under his authority to conduct evaluations on his own initiative. For this engagement, congressional interest specifically focused on determining the costs to the Department of Defense and the State Department of using private security contractors for security services versus using federal employees to provide the same services. However, DOD was unable to provide us with the information necessary to address our engagement objective. Although DOD provided some data on military personnel costs, DOD officials told us they could not provide other data necessary to complete a cost comparison. For example, DOD could not provide information regarding the number and rank of military personnel that would be needed to meet contract requirements. Also, DOD could not provide information on the cost to train personnel to perform the security functions. DOD officials told us that in order to provide data for a cost comparison they would have to form a team from several DOD organizations which would need to analyze each specific contract's requirements to determine the number and rank of personnel needed to meet the requirements. Therefore, we focused our review on the comparison of the State Department's costs to use private security contractors--to perform both personal and static security functions--as opposed to using State Department employees to perform those same functions." "To address our objective, we reviewed the task orders and contract which provided security in Iraq and that were current when we began our review -- four task orders of the Worldwide Personal Protective Services (WPPS) II contracts and one contract for Baghdad embassy security. ... Our comparison of likely State Department costs versus contractor costs for four task orders and one contract awarded by the State Department for security services in Iraq showed that for three of the task orders and the contract, the cost of using State Department employees would be greater than using contractors, while the State Department's estimated cost to use federal employees was less for the other task order."--Results in brief, p. 3.
OCLC:
(OCoLC)540589235
Locations:
USUX851 -- Iowa State University - Parks Library (Ames)
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.