Submitted by TEAM Public Affairs, Patuxent River

Congress recently approved the Navy's latest series of commercial activity studies. The studies are part of a 5-year Navy plan for reviewing and competing government services with private sector suppliers. This announcement covers more than 6,000 civilian and military positions Navy-wide. At NAVAIR team-wide, approximately 865 civilian positions were announced for study in August.

The positions that will be studied vary depending on the NAVAIR location. Areas for study include administration, supply services, industrial planning, plant services, tools and parts, and industrial maintenance. Employees will receive notification letters if their positions will be reviewed. The review process takes at least 12 months, usually longer.

As part of the 1997-2001 commercial activity plan, NAVAIR facility, competency and senior leaders were asked which areas at NAVAIR might be studied based on strict criteria established by the Office of Management and Budget.

"We are concerned about the efforts these actions have on our people. We were able to reduce the number of positions that had to be studied at NAVAIR using other business techniques, such as contract efficiencies and business process re-engineering," said Michael Deitchman, competitive sourcing program manager and competency manager for shore station management, 8.0, which guides the NAVAIR studies. "We were able to convince the Navy that these alternate methods really would lead us to be more efficient and save money for functions that were inherently governmental."

He added that some of the positions are now vacant or abolished, further reducing the number of people potentially affected.

After a study is announced, study team members will need employee input on the functions that they perform and how to conduct the work more efficiently.

According to Deitchman, NAVAIR has won 22 of 27 studies since 1997, although the "win" is implemented differently based on how the government structures its "bid" for the work.

"I think one of the reasons we've won so many studies is that our employees have come up with such good ideas on how to work more efficiently and managers have used these ideas in developing their proposals for the work," said Margaret Beavan, Aircraft Division commercial activity manager.

The Birth of Commercial Activity Studies

In 1955, President Eisenhower declared that the federal government should conduct only the work that could not be done by private industry. Government agencies were told to review their activities every year to see what could be done by the commercial sector and to only do work that was unique to the government.

In 1979, Congress declared that if government agencies could do the same work most cost efficiently, then the work should remain with the agencies.

How the Commercial Activity Process Works

A government agency, such as the Department of the Navy, determines that a certain type of work can be done by private industry and a competition for that work is announced.

Government agencies and with companies in the commercial sector submit bids to a contracting official for the work. In preparing it’s bid, the government agency reviews its work, determines which work must be retained, identifies the most efficient way to do the work and how many positions at what grade levels would be needed to do that work, and submits a bid based on this estimate. The government bid is compared to the best commercial sector bid to determine whether the government or the commercial bid is the most cost effective and the best value.

The contracting official reviews all the bids, determines which bid is the most cost effective and with the best value and awards the "contract."

The winning plan for doing the work, either commercial or government, is implemented.