What a difference a few days make.  Originally, this article was to be in ironic juxtaposition to yesterday’s piece about the Army Corps of Engineers discarding plans to pursue a competition between its 2,000-employee lock and dam operations with the private sector.

Earlier this month, Daniel Pulliam (govexec.com) reported that IRS was pushing forward with its intention to pit its 2,000-employee Information Technology (IT) support staff against private company aspirants to determine who could best keep IRSers’ computers purring like contented cats.

Well, lookee here.  IRS has now backed off its initial idea. 

Yep, this is a sign of the times.  Contracting rules and conventions are being altered.  This will be interesting to follow, interpret, and analyze. 

Two a trend doesn’t make, of course, but…

Is this the dawn of a new, better day?  Or is it merely a case of supplanting one set of insufficient policies with another?

Fred Apelquist, contributing editor

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