Evaluating the Decision to Outsource/Contract Out Programs/Tasks/Functions

Description: Organizations of all types—government, nonprofit, and for profit—are faced with a bewildering array of outsourcing decisions, including contracting out to another organization, engaging in a public-private partnership, or providing grants to accomplish a given task. This course will provide an evaluation mechanism that organizations can apply to a variety of outsourcing decisions. The course will be useful for both decision makers and those involved in the contracting process. Included are an overview of the legal and political environment, methods for comparing costs and effectiveness, case studies to evaluate, and hands-on use of spreadsheets to aid the analysis process.

Instructor: Professor James Edwin Kee is Professor in the Public Policy and Public Administration Department of the George Washington University, Washington, DC. Prior to joining GWU, he spent 17 years in state government in New York as legislative assistant and counsel to the State Assembly, and in Utah as State Budget Director and the first executive director of the Utah Department of Administrative Services. He served 4 years as managing editor of Public Budgeting & Finance and has published numerous articles on federal and state budget and fiscal policy, inter- governmental relations, and public management in such prestigious periodicals as the Harvard Law Review, the Public Administration Review, and Public Budgeting and Finance. His B.A. is from the University of Notre Dame and his M.P.A. and J.D. degrees from New York University where he was a Root-Tilden Scholar. He teaches public finance and courses in leadership and ethics at GWU and taught previously at New York University 's Law School , the Lehman and Hunter Colleges of the City University of New York, and the University of Utah . His current research interests include the allocation of taxes among national and sub-national governments in Brazil and the People's Republic of China . He is currently lead investigator on a project for the Center for Innovation in the Public Sector on "Leadership in Change and Transformation."

Certificates:  CEP and CAEP Special Topics

Fee: $450