June 2004: Study Finds Forest Service Outsourcing Will Cost More

The Forest Service conducts an internal analysis which concludes that outsourcing the work of its Content Analysis Team (CAT) (see March 2003) will not save US taxpayers any money. In fact, the study estimates that hiring private consultants would cost approximately $425,000 more than keeping the work in-house. [Associated Press, 11/14/2003; Missoulian, 11/15/2003; High Country News, 4/26/2004] No study is conducted to determine whether outside consultants could do the work better than the Forest Service’s experts. [High Country News, 4/26/2004]