A-76 continues to produce savings

On the 50th anniversary of OMB Circular A-76, the administration plans to report that the program is stronger than ever.

For fiscal 2004, federal agencies saved about $1.35 billion on 12,000 competitions between agencies and the private sector for federal positions, the report said.

And the savings came without the massive reduction in force that many predicted, said David Safavian, administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy. "The 2003 report said we had less than 500 RIFs, about a 3 percent rate."

OMB found in 2003, agencies saved $1.1 billion on 18,000 competitions. In the two years since agencies other than the Defense Department began regularly using A-76, the government has saved more than $2.4 billion, Savafian said, and feds won almost 90 percent of all competitions last year.