Another report of a questionable use of outsourcing appeared today in CongressDaily, this time it's happening over at the State Department. Seems folks over there have modified an existing contract to Computer Sciences Corporation (FedSpending.org profile) to "collect visa information and fingerprints of Mexicans applying for new border crossing cards." The non-competed contract has raised some eyebrows in Congress and among government watchdogs, particularly the Government Accountability Office (GAO). A State Department official testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Government Management Subcommittee that the contract is just a test program and that the department hopes to initiate a formal competition before the end of the year. But it looks as though that "test program" is just an attempt by the State Department to assess the usefulness of the contract cover their behinds. GAO has not had time to assess the new contracted out work and what impact it will have, and surprise, surprise, neither has the State Department. GAO testified at the same hearing that the State Department has "not developed metrics to measure the success and efficiency of the test program." So, the State Department is going to determine whether this is a good idea or not by...wait, how are they going to figure that out? Most likely, they have already concluded this outsourcing should happen. My bet is that the test program will lead to a contract for a full program, that Computer Sciences Corp. will undoubtably win, regardless of whether this really is a good deal for taxpayers or might compromise privacy or national security. No worries though - those are just minor details that will unfortunately remain unknown. Sigh...