The Salt Lake Tribune — Privatization cuts Forest Service jobs By Robert Gehrke

Dozens of Forest Service employees in Utah and Montana are spending their last days on the job after becoming some of the first victims of the Bush administration’s program to cut costs by privatizing government work. …

The decision came despite a cost estimate showing that government employees could do the work for $425,000 a year less than private contractors.

“We can make a pretty strong case for keeping us on board, but nobody gave us an opportunity to do that,” said Karl Vester, whose last day on the job was Friday. “The Forest Service should be ashamed for what they’ve done to us.”

It was all part of a Bush administration initiative to determine if agency functions could be done more efficiently by the private sector.

The Forest Service spent $24 million on outsourcing studies in the past year, 93 percent of which showed it was cheaper for government employees to continue the work.

See also: mjh’s Dump Bush weBlog: The End of Public Service

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