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Private contractors play a huge role in the government, particularly in civilian intelligence services like the CIA. Contracting critics say it's an addiction whose overhead costs drive up the federal budget and leads to data breaches like the kind perpetrated by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
In the wake of last year's NSA revelations, many agencies have been reviewing their contracting policies. But few people have a good grasp on just how many contractors the government employs. What's worse, the country's eight civilian intelligence agencies often can't sufficiently explain what they use those contractors for, according to a Government Accountability Office report.
What I don't like is how sloppy security becomes when some contractor is there to be the fall guy. The contractor thing is just pork, pure and simple. One hand washes the other. And some of them don't even have the decency to screen properly to preserve national interest secrets.
Not the part the Republicans will go along with, no. Face it, the GOP has its hands in the POCKETS of the national security industries. Won't get a single Republican vote (beyond maybe Rand Paul) to defund what must be a trillion dollar industry.
LOL. Contractors and temps do the work. No seriously, you want something done, you hire contractors.....and its the most inefficient way to possibly do it. But they end up doing all the work.
Let me give you a RL example-We're doing work to say...create a software widget.
5 government employees, and 15 contract temps. The 5 also have another 10 supervisors reaching up to the top. (no joke)
Over a year you have 20% turnover, and then you hit the 12 month or 18 month contract limit for a temp employee....you start letting people go who KNOW the systems you're working on. suddenly you hit 40% turnover.....and you're spending a LOT of time to train people in the systems before the knowledge walks out the door. You can't hire anyone permament because thats not in the budget-instead the contractor budget gets bigger.
You get clearance to outsource instead of temp hire folks. The outsourcing company hires all the temps....its better but the outsource company also cuts everyones pay by 25% to make more profit. Suddenly the best of the workers leave for other companies....
In the meantime the internal guys are all transferring to other divisions so that when it fails they can say "I just got here" or avoid it entirely.
LOL. Contractors and temps do the work. No seriously, you want something done, you hire contractors.....and its the most inefficient way to possibly do it. But they end up doing all the work.
Let me give you a RL example-We're doing work to say...create a software widget.
5 government employees, and 15 contract temps. The 5 also have another 10 supervisors reaching up to the top. (no joke)
Over a year you have 20% turnover, and then you hit the 12 month or 18 month contract limit for a temp employee....you start letting people go who KNOW the systems you're working on. suddenly you hit 40% turnover.....and you're spending a LOT of time to train people in the systems before the knowledge walks out the door. You can't hire anyone permament because thats not in the budget-instead the contractor budget gets bigger.
You get clearance to outsource instead of temp hire folks. The outsourcing company hires all the temps....its better but the outsource company also cuts everyones pay by 25% to make more profit. Suddenly the best of the workers leave for other companies....
In the meantime the internal guys are all transferring to other divisions so that when it fails they can say "I just got here" or avoid it entirely.
Good. Shut down the Pentagon. If the national security requires sending anyone into a place where lives will be lost, hire a contractor. That's what it takes for me to "believe". As long as the right wing insists on keeping the Pentagon open, I'll consider their claims phony.
Let me tell you why; up in the DC area my best friend is in IT working in the private sector and makes around 50k a year. His friend who knows about a tenth as much as him and has no college makes 3 times more as a contractor for the NSA. This is BS!
Let me tell you why; up in the DC area my best friend is in IT working in the private sector and makes around 50k a year. His friend who knows about a tenth as much as him and has no college makes 3 times more as a contractor for the NSA. This is BS!
Yeah. Using contractors is a horrible idea. I'm in agreement with T-310 as well. He's probably reading this and dying of shock.
Yeah. Using contractors is a horrible idea. I'm in agreement with T-310 as well. He's probably reading this and dying of shock.
Hey! Hey! Not fair to kill off people by this shock method!!!
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