Competence?

Clinton, Obama draw ire of contractors group: Contract Services Association says Democratic front-runners are taking potshots at government contractors (Washington) Government contractors want to avoid being caught in the crossfire during the 2008 presidential race, but candidates are already taking shots at them. (Washington Technology)

Normally, I avoid issues directly related to my job, but I have to say something on this article as a government contractor. This quote caught my eye:

"Clinton has also said contractor employees are more expensive, less competent and less accountable than federal employees. But CSA said the Office of Management and Budget found that the government saves an average of $32,000 per position reviewed when a private contractor and federal employees compete for commercial work."

I suppose, if I had not just participated in a conference call, it would not have made such an impact. Let me preface this by saying that I am working for an agency I worked at a year ago. In the intervening space, I went and worked at a private company doing something else entirely. Now, I might not have even noticed the quote, but in the call, Federal Employees, who have been working with the systems day-in and day-out, asked the same questions about operations issues that they asked a year or more ago. What's worse, is I remember the question and the answer! I had to leave the room, I was so incensed. These are (supposedly) professional (and I use the term very loosly) network engineers, and yet, I would not trust them to log on correctly two time in a row. And contractors are less accountable? If I had these people as my employees, they would not last a month.

Contractors may cost a lot of money (I know my rate is not cheap), but there are projects that will never get done without them. And clearly, if this agency is an example, in a year of absense, it was more like I took a week off.