A new study from the Project on Government Oversight suggests that in many cases, privatizing government turns out to be far more costly. POGO did something different than the usual method of comparing public- and private-sector salaries, instead scrutinizing the actual contracts awarded to companies for specific tasks, comparing them with the cost of government to do the same job. They looked at 550 contracts — all deemed “fair and reasonable”— for 35 different jobs across government agencies, from auditors and engineers to food inspectors and groundskeepers.As it turned out, the private contractors cost more in 33 of those 35 jobs. On average, the service contracts paid private employees 83 percent more than the government would pay a federal employee doing the same job (and that’s even taking into account health care benefits, pensions, and so on).
At www.washingtonpost.com
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