Private consultants cost Wisconsin more than public employees

[malaise]

http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=32675&sid=9b523c87c8d997e81510eeb16117bc4c
<snip>
A premise behind Gov. Scott Walker's push to gut public-worker unions is that public workers make a lot more than their counterparts in the private sector, which is a model of efficiency.

But two recent audits by the Legislative Audit Bureau found that private consultants hired by the state in various departments actually cost taxpayers more money than when their functions are handled by state employees.

A 2009 audit (PDF) of highway engineering construction projects found that consultants consistently cost the state more money than state workers. In 2007-08, the audit found, there were 287 construction projects, of which 127 (44%) were handled by consultants.

The state is required to do a cost-analysis assessment whenever it wants to hire a consultant. The audit analyzed 125 assessments for road projects between 2007 and 2008 and found that transportation staff could have completed the work for less money. But consultants were hired nonetheless, because the state didn't have the available staff to do the job.

Check out the pdfs
http://legis.wisconsin.gov/LAB/reports/09-dotconstructionengineering_ltr.pdf
Engineering projects

http://legis.wisconsin.gov/lab/reports/09-9full.pdf
Accountability, Consolidation and Efficiency

[drm604]

1. K&R

Can I rec this more than once somehow?

[malaise]

2. LOL

:fistbump:

[Jazzgirl]

3. I rec'd it for you.

:-)

[gadjitfreek]

6. Adorable kitty!!!!!

Sorry, I know it's off topic, but I loves me a gorgeous kitty cat. Got three of my own. :)

[LiberalFighter]

4. Could they hire enough full-time staff to do the work of the consultants at less cost?

If so, this needs to be publicize more and explained that in some cases it is better to have more government workers.

[pitohui]

5. the whole point of hiring consultants is to screw people out of full time/benefits

when you are a consultant/contractor you have to charge a much higher hourly to overcome the fact that you don't get any benefits, the weeks you're out of work are not paid vacation, the weeks you're sick are not paid sick days, you get no retirement, you get no health care, you get butt-fuck-all NOTHING with lots of unpaid time off while you're spending money trying to hustle new consulting jobs/new contracts

contract workers are not living it up high on the hog, unless they're the children or wives or whatever of the politicians in question, most of them are barely struggling w. their heads above water

i'm sure there is some way to twist it to make it seem that contractors demand too much money, but it's unlikely to be the case when all of the real costs of not having a secure job are counted properly

lots of engineers get laid off in their 50s and then get shuffled off to the "consultancy" track and it isn't because gov't or private employers want to pay older folks MORE for their hard-won experience, it's a way to fuck over the middle-aged and deny them benefits

in an ideal world, sure, hire the staff full-time and give them benefits, i for one would never do another free-lance job again if i could get a "real" job but most people in the contracting ghetto are there precisely because nobody's handing out these great jobs anymore unless you're sleeping with/related to the right person

there are 7 billion people in this world and just not that many real full-time jobs w. benefits

we need to find another way to get a decent lifestyle for everyone, a way that doesn't involve setting workers at each other's throats...consultants are not the ones benefiting from the penny pinching, they're the ones who got shit canned and then re-hired as consultants so whoever didn't have to pay them any benefits!

[Scuba]

7. Great. Thanks. I blatantly copied/pasted to jsonline blogs