By Alyssa Rosenberg
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has improved workforce planning in the face of a changing mission and shortages of candidates for key positions, but more strategic planning is needed to manage its growing contractor workforce effectively, the Government Accountability Office said in a report released on Friday.
"Contractors have been the fastest growing segment of CDC's workforce, increasing 139 percent from fiscal year 2000 through fiscal year 2006, and now represent more than one-third of the agency's workforce," the report said. "Without addressing [management of contractors], the CDC plan will not give the agency a strategic view of its governmental and contractor workforce and thus may not be as useful as it could be in assisting the agency with strategic human capital planning for its entire workforce."
Vincent Ventimiglia, assistant secretary for legislation at the Health and Human Services Department, wrote in response that after reviewing other human capital plans the Office of Personnel Management had identified as best practices, CDC did not include contractors in its workforce plan because "the agency does not control their hiring, diversity, compensation, training and other key human capital factors."
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