Summary: In late 1995, after a lull of several years, the Defense Department (DOD) began urging the military services and defense agencies to intensify competitive sourcing efforts as provided for in the Office of Management and Budget's Circular A-76. Under Circular A-76, the military is to conduct cost comparison studies of commercial activities being done by government workers to determine whether it would be more cost-effective to maintain them in-house or contract with the private sector. Government officials, Congress, and business leaders have complained that these cost comparisons take too long. Congress has encouraged DOD to develop standardized performance work statements to expedite these competitive sourcing studies. This report discusses DOD's efforts to (1) improve performance work statements, including encouraging the use of standard templates, and (2) implement other efforts to improve the competitive sourcing process, as well as gather and disseminate lessons learned that could benefit the competitive sourcing program through DOD.
