Report: Fed Bureaucracies Commit Thousands Of Felonies Every Day [Hiring Thousands Illegally]

Daily Caller ^ | 09/20/2017 | TIM PEARCE

[AndyJackson]

Bureaucracies have successfully evaded congressional budget oversight for years by illegally hiring contract labor to take the place of employees, according to a Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) report released Tuesday.

Bureaucracies commit thousands of felonies a day, misappropriating funds not approved by Congress and expanding agency influence at a time when government agencies should cut back.

Bureaucracies freeze hiring new employees, ideally to stop expansion and cut costs, when under pressure to reform or adapt to budget cuts. Many agencies continue to grow despite budget cutbacks, however, by illegally hiring outside contract labor.

“While contracting for these services is contrary to the law, this practice has become so ubiquitous in government that it passes without notice,” the CEI report’s author Robert Hanrahan wrote.

Any labor that uses a “skill,” which is nearly every job in the federal government, is classified under “personal services” hiring. With few exceptions, agencies hiring without Congressional approval for the expenditures is illegal under a set of statutes known as the Anti Deficiency Act (ADA).

“Any federal employee who accepts voluntary services or employs personal services may be terminated, fined, and imprisoned for up to two years. But remarkably, the prohibition on personal services is rarely recognized, much less enforced,” Hanrahan wrote.

“The bureaucracy grows ever larger thanks to this bureaucratic ‘dark energy’ — an invisible force that allows government to expand at the discretion of the bureaucracy alone,” he added.

Hanrahan points out his first hand experience working for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).

“The NNSA … has no authorization to use program funds for support service contractors, and is under a cap on federal staff explicitly intended to reduce transactional oversight,” Hanrahan’s report states. “Yet, within the NNSA, over $100 million per year are redirected from programs to hire support contractors just in the Washington D.C. area.”

“When the prohibition is flouted, the benefits accrue mostly to the Washington, D.C. region,” Hanrahan wrote.

[AndyJackson]

This is from the Original Competitive Enterprise Institute Report Bureaucratic Dark Energy Grows Government Illegally

Bureaucratic Dark Energy is a paper released today from the Competitive Enterprise Institute revealing a growing concern over the federal government’s use of thousands of government contractors to grow the bureaucracy illegally.

“In trying to reduce bureaucracy, the president and Congress focus on things like hiring freezes at agencies, but agencies simply turn to contractors instead, growing the bureaucracy with neither approval nor oversight from Congress,” said Robert Hanrahan, author of Bureaucratic Dark Energy. “Without specific authorization from Congress, hiring contractors for their specific skills to fill ongoing federal jobs is a felony. But many agencies do it nonetheless, as these laws are nearly never enforced. The bureaucracy grows ever larger thanks to this bureaucratic ‘dark energy’—an invisible force that allows government to expand at the discretion of the bureaucracy alone.”

Bureaucratic Dark Energy suggests two solutions for the lack of accountability that has led federal agencies to misinterpret the “personal services” language in the Anti-Deficiency Act (ADA), a series of laws prohibiting agencies from hiring contractors except as appropriated and authorized by Congress. First, Congress must insist on enforcement of the Anti-Deficiency Act and punish civil servants who outsource their own jobs. Secondly, Congress should establish a private civil cause of action for ADA violations. There may be hundreds of cases at dozens of agencies amounting to billions of dollars in misappropriation. A small fraction of these sums awarded to successful plaintiffs should be a powerful incentive for agencies to rein in their spending on contractors.

[SaveFerris]

Meanwhile we have millions and millions of Americans who are waaaaay down on any hiring list.

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[eyeamok]

Thank God we are a Nation of Men and not one of laws, so we don’t need to worry about stuff like this.

[DugwayDuke]

If this practice was illegal, the federal unions would be in court today.

[spintreebob]

A large number of those contract employees are former Fed employees. What percentage? I don’t know. It varies by agency/department. My guess is 50% for many agencies.

[arthurus]

At least contract employees can be fired if the will is there to do it. They are not civil service.

[AndyJackson]

I think you miss the point, which is that this is used as a source in increase the number of people working for the government at taxpayer expense to increase the number of functionaries increasing bureaucratic inertia and transaction costs and time. It is used as a technique to get around hiring ceilings, which every agency has.

[dragnet2]

Private sector is doing this as well, replacing employees who once had salaries, benefits etc, with contract labor...That way employers skate around all the costly workers compensation expense$ and associated headaches. They’re throwing it all on the employees, making it their burden. Even delivery people nowadays in many cases they’re now required to use their own vehicles to make deliveries..Which basically wears them out within a year or so.

[Seruzawa]

It’s a common form of double-dipping. I saw it frequently years ago when I briefly worked for the DOD. I’ve never seen corruption of such epidemic levels in the private sector. Civil Service is a pit.

[AndyJackson]

If this practice was illegal, the federal unions would be in court today.

As the author points out, there is no private cause of action for this practice, and so the only person with standing is the Department of Justice. Unions have no injury because the contract employees fill positions above authorized end-strength and therefore are not taking jobs from Feds.

[AndyJackson]

A large number are retired miliatary Feds hiring their retired military friends as contractors (field grade and senior officers of course) frequently with little background experience or aptitude for the job to be undertaken.

[SaveFerris]

[Even delivery people nowadays in many cases they’re now required to use their own vehicles to make deliveries..Which basically wears them out within a year or so.]

Yeah, I’ve seen those “job” ads. There’s many that try that scam. One FReeper said they did Uber for awhile - figured out they were making about $2 an hour. While wearing out their vehicle.

[arthurus]

I say it is better than if these same bodies were hired directly. We could not get rid of them short of lining them up and shooting them. If this president desires he can simply have their contracts all terminated and they go away.

[arthurus]

I say it is better than if these same bodies were hired directly. We could not get rid of them short of lining them up and shooting them. If this president desires he can simply have their contracts all terminated and they go away.

[Mariner]

two edged sword
Contractors are more efficient than government employees and you often get more units of actual work per dollar.
Sometimes they are thee only ones who actually do anything.

[AndyJackson]

two edged sword here

You have missed the point of the article. The complained about activity is not writing a contract to provide a product or service, which is clearly lawful, but rather hiring contractors as individuals to augment the bureaucratic staff, which is a felony under the Anti-Deficiency Act.

As an example, Trump complained about EPA processes taking twelve years without approving a highway. That isn't done by federal staff. That takes an army of illegal support service contractors.

This has been illegal for over 100 years and remains illegal today. The reason is that there is no cap on the number of bureaucrats you can have except employment caps set in law. But these illegal contracts are used to evade these laws. You are not winning from this. The swamp is. The money all stays here in D.C. hiring folks from funds that should have gone out to the states.

[SoCal Pubbie]

I can’t even get hired on that basis!

[Mariner]

That money should never have shown up in DC in the first place, much less returning to the states.

At least these contract workers don’t get a federal pension or benefits. And they can be fired at will.

[Cobra64]

Cut the payroll and the head count.