In this session experts discuss in-sourcing and cost-effective contracting innovations that are already working in organizations such as the Millennium Challenge Corporation.

1. Engaging Contract Workers
Best Practices for Government Agencies

2. MCC: THE BASICS

3. What is MCC?
• Innovative foreign aid agency leading U.S. fight against global poverty
• MCC is grant (Compacts) provider to poor countries committed to:
• Good governance
• Economic freedom
• Investment in their citizens
• Mandate to reduce poverty through economic growth
• Created with bipartisan support by U.S. Congress in 2004, led by
governing Board of Directors chaired by Secretary of State

4. What’s different about MCC?
• Competitive selection
• Country-led solutions
• Country-led implementation
In Jordan, local women engage at a
consultative workshop in Amman on
Jordan’s MCC Compact development.
MCC is committed to ensuring gender is
considered and recognized in all stages
of its work with partner countries.

5. The MCC Effect
• MCC Compacts are powerful
incentives for countries to adopt stable
and effective policies in order to
become Compact-eligible
• Solid sociopolitical and economic
policies are closely related to growth
and poverty reduction
• Aid is more effective when governments
are invested in their people
• Open policies encourage private
investment and increased trade,
creating a sustainable environment for
economic development
Francina Mutilifa, a 10th grader who plans to
become a lawyer, receives one of more than
695,000 textbooks purchased as part of
MCC’s Compact in Namibia.

6. MCC AND CONTRACT TALENT

7. Using Contract Talent:
Setting the Stage
• Direct hire limit of 300 employees • MCC incorporates mix of
• Specialty areas not always best personal service contractors,
addressed through direct MCC independent consultants, and
hires service contractor firms
• Contracts, land/agriculture • MCC strikes the right balance to
experts, environmental augment direct workforce to
assessment, infrastructure, etc. accomplish mission
• Roles range from admin to • My office does announcements,
executive, including mission- recruitment, and solicitation and
critical positions negotiates the contracts with all
three types
• Consultants/Contractors also
provide additional flexibility for
short-term technical needs
IMPORTANT:
Non- FT PSC Consultants/Contractors deliver services that are not inherently governmental

8. Current Contractor Makeup
within MCC
MCC Direct
Hires
(288)
+
Outsourced Augmented Staff
Service Individual
Personal
Contract consultants
Services
Firms – BPA via direct
Contractors
or IDIQ Firms contract or
(8) FT
(varies by Call Order
(39) PT
need) (140)
(87)
Managed by
MBO Partners
Numbers are approximate and fluctuate monthly

9. PSCs vs ICs: Trends
• Reduce the number of part-time or intermittent PSCs to avoid
contractors from performing inherently governmental functions
• The 1998 Federal Activities Inventory Reform (FAIR) Act classifies an activity
as inherently governmental when it is so intimately related to the public
interest that it must be performed by federal employees.
Inherently Governmental Functions
• Binding the U.S. to take or not take some action by contract, policy, regulation, authorization, order, or
otherwise;
• Determining, protecting, or advancing U.S. economic, political, territorial, property, or other interests by military
or diplomatic action, civil or criminal judicial proceedings, contract management, or otherwise;
• Significantly affecting the life, liberty, or property of private persons;
• Commissioning, appointing, directing, or controlling officers or employees of the U.S.; and
• Exerting control over the acquisition, use, or disposition of the property, real or personal, tangible or intangible,
of the U.S., including the collection, control, and disbursement of appropriations and other Federal funds.
On the other hand, under the proposal policy “inherently governmental functions” would not include:
• Gathering information for or providing advice, opinions, recommendations, or ideas to Federal Government
officials; or
• Any function that is primarily ministerial and internal in nature.

10. MBO Partners:
General Benefit to MCC using MBO
• Experience
• Leverage 25 years of financial services innovation for Independent
Consultants
• International deployment in 14 countries
• Customized enterprise solutions
• Unique technology platform specifically for IC engagement
• Government credentials
• Top Secret Clearance
• Approved GSA supplier with competitive rates

11. The MBO Partners Program
for MCC’s Consultants
• Assess consultants for compliance with IRS
regulations for independent contracting MBO Partners and MCC:
Relationship
• Enable rapid consultant deployment to MCC eligible History
countries
• Monitor consultants’ time and expense submissions 2005: MBO won
competitively awarded
• Track time and expense activity against Call Order five-year BPA to engage
MCC ICs
budget
2010: Won competitive
• Invoice MCC and collects funds re-bid
• Provide payments
MBO has engaged 259
• Provide a “portable” W-2 employment alternative MCC ICs since
inception
• Access to group benefits, retirement programs,
employment continuity, pre-tax expense
reimbursement, and more

12. Contract Talent Management:
Key Success Attributes
With MBO Partners
Some MBO consultants have been on boarded and
Time-to-Productivity deployed within 48 hours , most within 30 days
MBO Consultants do not require the markup typical with
Cost Savings larger Contract Firms who provide individuals as workers
MBO managing the on boarding, monitoring, invoicing and
payment keeps the MCC’s involvement with these activities
Disintermediation
to a minimum, allowing focus on performance and
deliverables

13. One More Critical Factor:
It Has to Be Easy!
• MBO Partners and MCC have worked together to develop a uniquely
convenient IC engagement process
• MCC COTR/PM involvement limited to:
• Deploying IC to assignment
• Assessing Performance and Deliverable Acceptability
• Approving time and expense submissions
• MCC Contracting Officer involvement limited to:
• Identifying candidates and referring them to MBO for enrollment
• Negotiating IC hourly rates
• Issuing Statements of Work and Executing Call Orders

14. For more information about MCC, please visit:
www.mcc.gov
For more information about MBO Partners, please contact:
Jay Lash jlash@mbopartners.com
703 793-6005