State uses pandemic as excuse to outsource personnel management

Administration Commissioner Kelly Tshibaka is taking steps to shift more personnel management functions away from state employees and toward a private contractor, using the pandemic as an excuse.

Among many objectives listed here, the contractor is supposed to “establish job-specific performance expectations for employees in each Department to create clarity and accountability for every State of Alaska employee.”

Speaking of accountability, this plan deserves some, minus the nearly incomprehensible jargon that marks the July 24 announcement of the “Pandemic Preparedness Plan Phase 2—Personnel Management.”

The unreasonable timeline contained in the request for proposals published that day makes it appear as if the state knew in advance what contractor it wants to pick for the estimated six-month $5.6 million contract.

That alone is justification for halting this process and starting an independent investigation by the Legislature.

The overriding issue is why state employees already on the payroll haven’t been asked to take on this work and figure out ways to improve telecommuting.

The July 24 proposal called for proposals to be submitted by 2 p.m. Aug. 3, meaning that contractors had five business days to respond to a complicated measure.

Worse than that, the state said it would complete evaluations of the proposals by Aug. 5 and publish a notice to award the contract that same day. So proposals submitted by 2 p.m. Monday would be analyzed Tuesday and the ideal applicant would be announced Wednesday.

The claim that one business day is sufficient to evaluate all the bids and pick the best one makes me think that the state has already decided who is going to get the bid.

At least two companies interested in bidding on the project asked that the state extend the deadline and give contractors five more days to submit bids.

The state refused to do that, but it extended the deadline by two days.

So bids are now due Wednesday at 2 p.m. The proposals will be evaluated by Friday and the state intends to announce an intent to award a contract to the chosen one that same day. There is every reason to be suspicious about that schedule.

The proposal says the contract would run through next February and could be extended by two one-year renewals, which would put the total value in the neighborhood of $25 million.

The document posted on July 24 included draft comments by the procurement officer that did not belong on the document released to the public.

One of these dealt with specific prior experience and said, “Be careful about what you ask for as you may set requirements so high that you disqualify good potential contractors.”

Another item regarding the scope of work said, “Don’t presume that they will get it if you don’t say it. Write it as if you were trying to explain it to a 12-year-old child.”

I found it surprising that this flawed draft version remained on the state website for days on a contract that, with renewals, could be worth $25 million to someone.

The document published July 24 said that the first phase of the project was to have been completed by July 28.

It’s not clear what phase one consisted of or who did the work. Here is the list of items under phase one.

I don’t know if this is related, but the department did have a no-bid contract with Collins Alliance regarding “performance management” and transforming human resources under an executive order issued by Dunleavy a year-and-a-half ago.

Collins Alliance says its “current enterprise project using Coach Motivation” is with Tshibaka’s department.

“With Coach Motivation you will learn how to make change conversations happen in your organization,” Collins Alliance says in a promotional video.

Let’s start with this “change conversation.” Quit using fuzzy business jargon and pompous buzz words to disguise whatever is really taking place.

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