DOD Competitive Sourcing

The Army maintains eight facilities in the United States that store chemical agents and munitions that are slated for disposal in the next several years. Some of these facilities also have other responsibilities, such as ammunition storage, manufacturing, and maintenance of chemical defense equipment. Five of the eight facilities are participating in an Army study of whether work now done by federal employees could be done more cost effectively by the private sector. As part of this effort, the Army is conducting competitive sourcing studies. Members of Congress, however, have raised concerns about the impact of competitive sourcing on the ability of the chemical storage facilities to respond to emergencies, such as an accidental chemical release, and on manufacturing capabilities related to chemical and biological defense. This report discusses (1) the Army's plans for competitive sourcing studies at the five facilities and the extent to which the emergency response of chemical defense industrial positions are included in the competitive sourcing studies and (2) the status of the Army's assessment and GAO's assessment of how competitive sourcing would affect emergency response capabilities and environmental permits associated with the destruction of chemical agents and munitions.

GAO noted that: (1) the Army has competitive sourcing studies underway at five of the eight facilities where chemical munitions are stored, but only a relatively small number of the activities being studied at these locations include emergency response duties; (2) these studies focus principally on base operations support functions such as facilities maintenance, supply, and information management; (3) the Army had plans to study activities involving manufacturing positions at only one of these facilities, Pine Bluff Arsenal, Arkansas, but cancelled those plans in November 1999; (4) the Army has not completed its assessment of how the transition from the current organizational structure to either a most efficient government organization or contractor workforce would affect emergency response capabilities; (5) however, GAO's analysis indicates that there should be minimal potential for a degradation of emergency response capabilities because of the small number and types of positions with emergency response duties potentially affected; (6) the Army should be able to mitigate any degradation of emergency capability by requiring that transition plans provide for adequate training and phasing in of any replacement personnel who will be performing emergency response duties; and (7) Army officials believe that the scope of the competitive sourcing studies should not affect environmental permits as long as the Army maintains its emergency response capabilities.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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