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[Juliana Dutra <kila01 AT yahoo.com>]

Didn't work with Iraq or Katrina, what makes Bushies
think it's going to work with the economy ?

Political Appointees Re-Write Commerce Department
Report On Offshore Outsourcing; Original Analysis Is
Missing From Final Version

http://www.manufacturingnews.com/news/05/1012/art1.html

The Commerce Department has responded to a
half-year-old request by Manufacturing and Technology
News for the release a long-awaited study on the issue
of "offshore outsourcing" of IT service-sector jobs
and high-tech industries. But the 12-page document
represented by the agency as its final report is not
what was written by its analysts. Rather, it was
crafted by political appointees at Commerce and at the
White House, according to those familiar with it.

At an estimated cost of $335,000 -- or $28,000 per
page -- the document MTN received from the Commerce
Department's Technology Administration contains no
original research and forsakes its initial intent of
providing a balanced view of outsourcing, according to
those inside and outside the agency.

The report was requested by Congress in an
appropriations bill in December 2003, with a six-month
deadline of June 2004. A 12-page version, entitled
"Six-Month Assessment of Workforce Globalization In
Certain Knowledge-Based Industries," was released on
September 8, 2005, as the result of a Freedom of
Information Act request that MTN had filed on March
17, 2005. The report, which carries a July 2004 date,
has not been posted on the Technology Administration's
Web site and is not available to the public.

According to those who have tracked the report's
whereabouts, it was completed well before the November
2004 presidential election but was delayed for
clearance by the White House and the
Republican-controlled Congress due to the
controversial nature of the subject. Outsourcing had
become a contentious campaign issue, particularly in
the swing states.

After the November election, a draft of the report
prepared by a "braintrust" of Technology
Administration analysts went into a vetting process
among political appointees at the Commerce Department
and White House. It never resurfaced. The analysts
never received any feedback on their work, which is
unusual, say those who have written similar reports.

The 12-page version that was released focuses on the
allegedly positive impacts for the U.S. economy of the
offshore outsourcing -- and "insourcing" -- of jobs in
the IT, semiconductor and pharmaceutical industries,
argue those who have read it. The report quotes
research conducted by organizations and individuals
that have been funded by multinationals that benefit
from shifting jobs overseas. No mention is made of the
conflict of interest inherent in the studies cited by
the Commerce report...

"There is nothing in here that is original research,"
says outsourcing expert Professor Ronil Hira of the
Rochester Institute of Technology, who chairs the
Career & Workforce Policy Committ.. he adds. "It is
missing a lot of the information that was available at
the time. It's equivalent of the work of a sophomore
at the college where I teach."

Martin Kenney, a professor at University of
California-Davis and a member of the ACM panel
investigating the issue, concurs. "It's a little bit
shocking that that level of work could come out of
anybody with a college education," he says. "I mean, I
wouldn't accept that from my students in a class."..

"The U.S. government is different from most other
countries because most other countries are taking this
very seriously and are trying to think through where
this global shift of call centers and rather
sophisticated service types of activities and mental
labor is going to be located in the next 20 years,"
says Kenney. "How does one position one's economy and
one's educational system, particularly at the
university level, to make sure that you can continue
to add value at a sufficient level to keep you as an
advanced developed country? 

The United States seems to be treating this even more
cavalierly than it treated the relocation of
manufacturing, which has been very important for the
rise of China as a new global superpower."

Services are expected to generate even more value than
manufacturing "and are the basis of another major
global shift," says Kenney, author of the 2003 book
"Locating Global Advantage: Industry Dynamics in the
International Economy." "To ignore what's happening
won't mean it won't happen -- but, on the other hand,
it will prevent you from having to do anything. It's
pretty amazing that the government would put out
something like that report."