Fighting outsourcing: members step up to the plate
3:41 PM - January 21, 2011

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Twenty-four Unit 1 members participated in a “contract review marathon” on Jan. 7 and 8 in Sacramento. The goal of the review is to identify superfluous outsourcing contracts to defend against State Personnel Board (SPB) challenges, Joint Labor Management Committees (JLMCs), and provide information to legislative committees. Fifty-two contracts were analyzed and 87 were targeted for additional analysis.
Interesting findings:

The Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) contracts project managers and web-developers–when the work could be performed by state IT professionals.
$19 million was spent in a no-win Franchise Tax Board (FTB) legal case.
A DMV contract that originated as a sole-source contract in 1995 for $12 million was amended ten times–and is now up to $72 million. This is an example of a lack of oversight in the procurement process.
There is a growing use of student assistants.
Many contracts exist with out-of-state firms when state tax money could have stayed in California.


Activities identified for further action and follow-up:

Request quarterly IT acquisition plans for each department to see what IT services each department plans to purchase in the coming quarter.
Petition the Legislature to require better management of contracts. Some departments appear to sign-off on invoices without following up on job completion.
The use of “leveraged procurement acquisitions,” such as CMAS and MSAs, allow departments to purchase up to $1.5 million with little oversight and has led to wasteful spending.


The next outsourcing study is planned for Feb. 4 in San Diego. If you are interested in attending, contactunit1@seiu1000.org.