Hiring contractors to do the work of federal employees is common practice in Washington, D.C. It's also illegal, says a new report from the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian think tank. It outlines how federal agences widely misappropriate discretionary funds for this purpose, often with little or no congressional or public oversight.
From the Competitive Enterprise Institute:
Read Full Article »Does Congress know of these contracts, and has it explicitly or implicitly approved them? Frequently, the answer to both questions is no.
The prohibition on personal services is an anti-corruption statute. The wrong it was intended to correct was federal employees entrusted with appropriated funds using a portion of those funds to hire others to help with their work—and in some cases perform it entirely. Congress appropriates funds for specific activities; the funds may be legally expended solely for the intended purpose. When a federal employee uses a portion of these funds to hire assistants through contracts, it is almost never reported to Congress. In any case, merely reporting the illegal expenditure does not validate it; there is no such thing as “implied authorization for personal services.” Misappropriation of this type may continue as a matter of course for decades but it is still illegal.