In an era of changing security interests, the benefits of competition are not a luxury, but a necessity in order to reallocate funding to meet the needs of the warfighter.

The Office of Management and Budget’s Circular A-76 and its Supplemental Handbook detail procedures for determining whether commercial activities should be performed within the Department of Defense, by another federal agency, or by the private sector.

In November 1997, we announced a goal to compete 150,000 positions between Fiscal Year 1997 and Fiscal Year 2003 under the A-76 process. We are committed to exceeding our original objective.

The Fiscal Year 2000 budget provides for the competition of nearly 229,000 positions between Fiscal Year 1997 and Fiscal Year 2005.

The Performance Scorecard for Competitive Sourcing shows that, in Fiscal Year 1997, the number of positions competed under the A-76 process was just over 26,000.

In Fiscal Year 1998, over 32,000 positions were competed.

From Fiscal Year 1997 through Fiscal Year 2005, nearly 170,000 positions will be competed; resulting in a cumulative total of 229,000 positions competed.

The DOD expects this process will save approximately $11.2 billion dollars from Fiscal Year 1997 to Fiscal Year 2005. These savings will be reallocated to other defense priorities, including force modernization.