It's what we've been saying all along, and a study by the Project on Government Oversight backs us up. CBS News, reporting on POGO's study, says
...in 33 of the 35 occupational categories it reviewed, federal government employees were less expensive than contractors. On average, the federal government pays contractors 1.83 times more than it pays federal employees and two times more than what comparable workers in the private sector are paid.
For instance, the government on average pays contractors $299,374 for accounting services, while it pays federal employees $124,851 for accounting services. By comparison, workers in the private sector (not under contract by the government) make on average $83,132. The government on average pays contractors $198,411 for information technology management, while they pay federal workers $124,663.And you know all those complaints about how government has gotten so much bigger? Well, it hasn't. But government contractors have gotten way bigger -- 75 percent bigger from 1999 to 2005, in fact. POGO reports the number of contractor workers rose to a whopping 7.6 million from 4.4 million six years earlier.
Here's another reason contractors are so expensive. Reports Datacenter Dynamics,
The global IT consulting and outsourcing firm Accenture has settled a lawsuit with the US Department of Justice, which accused the vendor of having received kickbacks for recommending certain vendors' hardware and software to government agencies, inflating prices and rigging contract bids.
