Bush goes ahead with privatization anyway

Costs of studies blasted
Mountain club says agencies are strapped

By Deborah Frazier, Rocky Mountain News
October 22, 2003

The Bush administration spent millions of dollars studying ways to
privatize Interior Department jobs without finding significant
savings, the Colorado Mountain Club said Tuesday.

"The studies are robbing the agencies of their very limited resources
with the real goal of privatizing and commercializing public lands,"
said Vera Smith of the 10,000-member Colorado Mountain Club.

http://rockymountainnews.com/drmn/st...366417,00.html


The analysis by the Campaign to Protect America's Lands, released in
Denver, said the Interior Department spent $16 million this year on
privatization studies and saved only $600,000.

But John Wright, a spokesman for Interior Department, said only

$2.1 million was spent in the last two years on hiring private
consultants.

The Campaign to Protect America's Public Lands said its $16 million
figure included wages for the hours federal workers spent helping the
private consultants instead of doing their jobs.

"These employees, who all wear five hats in their jobs, were diverted
to find opportunities for contract workers who were doing only one job
and stay only a year," said Smith.

Both Wright and the conservationists' analysis agreed that federal
employees are a good buy, although contract workers cost less because
they receive lower salaries and fewer benefits.

"The studies are two-thirds done and no one has lost a job," said
Wright.

However, he said the savings were substantial - $2.5 million
nationally.

"There are savings because employees rose to the occasion and showed
they could do the job better," he said.

In Colorado, the studies looked at Bureau of Land Management
maintenance workers in Kremmling, Grand Junction, Glenwood Springs,
Canon City, La Jara, Montrose, Durango, Craig and other towns.

"The study found it was more cost-effective to do the jobs with
federal workers," said Barb Perkins, spokesman for the BLM Colorado
office. However, no Colorado-specific figures were available.

The Interior Department includes the National Park Service, the Bureau
of Reclamation, the Minerals Management Service and other public land
agencies.

Rick Frost, spokesman for the National Park Service in Colorado, said
that studies haven't started in the state's parks, national monuments
and wildlife refuges.

Next week, a congressional conference committee that includes Sen. Ben
Nighthorse-Campbell, an Ignacio Republican, will look at continued
funding for privatization studies.

The House Interior Committee voted to halt more funding for the
studies because of minimal savings. The Senate Interior Committee
wants to continue funding.

"We think it is time to pull the plug and stop wasting the money,"
said Peter Altman, director of the Campaign to Protect America's
Lands. "This is a total waste of taxpayers' money and we are not
getting anything out of it."

The Campaign to Protect America's Lands study also said the Forest
Service, an Agriculture Department agency, spent $18 million on a plan
that will save only $1.2 million over six years.

"We have not yet found any jobs that could be outsourced," said Martha
Delporte, the outsourcing expert at the Forest Service's regional
office in Lakewood.

"We are pretty efficient and private industry can't do it any
cheaper," said Dave Steinke of the Forest Service.

"it's no joke,Tuco.It's a rope" wrote in
message m...


Hey Mikey! I was just wondering........what does it feel like to know that
you have lost the capacity to even bore people anymore?

Wolfgang
who has bet a shiny new nickel that this will.....or will not.....generate
an interesting response or two.....oooooh!.....which way to jump?

"++ Hey Mikey! I was just wondering........what does it feel like to
know that
you have lost the capacity to even bore people anymore?++

Im not trying to entertain people, just post some news that the war
frenzied media seems so happy to ignore.

Isn't it time you headed back to your mold infested shack for your six
pack of beer? It is almost noon, you know.

"it's no joke,Tuco.It's a rope" wrote
in message om...
"++ Hey Mikey! I was just wondering........what does it feel like
to
know that
you have lost the capacity to even bore people anymore?++

Im not trying to entertain people,

Good thing. It saves you the embarrassment of admitting abject
failure.

just post some news that the war
frenzied media seems so happy to ignore.

And it is our good fortune that there is one man in America who is not
only privy to the truth, but also willing to go so far out of his way
to share, huh?

Isn't it time you headed back to your mold infested shack for your
six
pack of beer? It is almost noon, you know.

Is it? Well, that explains a lot, doesn't it?

Wolfgang