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Report: Iowa gives little business to outsourcing firms
DES MOINES (AP) -- Almost all 50 states are giving contracts to companies that send the work overseas, but agencies in Iowa have done little business with such outsourcing companies, a new report said.
Iowa has not awarded contracts to any of the 18 companies identified in the report as performing state government contracts with cheap overseas labor, according to the report.
The report was prepared by Good Jobs First, a nonprofit research center, for a union representing white collar workers that has fought outsourcing.
Iowa is one of eight states that hired a company with a domestic call center to handle questions about the state's food stamp program, the report found. The other 42 states hired Citibank Electronic Financial Services, which subcontracted call center work to a company in India.
The report said outsourcing companies are positioning themselves to capture more work from state governments who often don't know it is being sent to low-wage countries, such as India. It documented at least $75 million in contracts that has already gone to such companies.
Only one of the 18 companies identified, Tata Group, an India-based outsourcing giant that has offices in the United States, is listed among Iowa's vendors. At least 40 states had two or more of the companies listed, some having as many as 11.
A U.S. subsidiary of Tata, based in Omaha, Neb., is one of 70 companies pre-qualified to do information technology work for Iowa state agencies. The company has bid on Iowa projects, but has not been awarded any.
"They actually have not done any work for us," said Ashley Super, a purchasing agent for the Department of Administrative Services, who said the company qualifies for several different types of projects.
A phone number for Tata's Omaha office has been disconnected, and the firm's Midwest manager, Soubhik Ghosh, did not return an e-mail seeking comment.
The company does most of its work in India, but lists U.S. office addresses when applying for state government contracts, said Philip Mattera, the author of the report.
To avoid supporting companies that send jobs overseas, states should require contractors to disclose where they plan to actually perform work on contracts, he said. Governors in Minnesota and Missouri already have issued executive orders to do that.
"The time to adopt public policies to address this issue is now -- while government offshoring is still somewhat limited -- not when it has already become a pervasive and entrenched practice," the report concluded.
Ben Gran, a spokesman for Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, said the report indicates "outsourcing of state contracts is not a major problem in Iowa," but that the governor didn't rule out taking action in the future.
Iowa has not awarded contracts to any of the 18 companies identified in the report as performing state government contracts with cheap overseas labor, according to the report.
The report was prepared by Good Jobs First, a nonprofit research center, for a union representing white collar workers that has fought outsourcing.
Iowa is one of eight states that hired a company with a domestic call center to handle questions about the state's food stamp program, the report found. The other 42 states hired Citibank Electronic Financial Services, which subcontracted call center work to a company in India.
The report said outsourcing companies are positioning themselves to capture more work from state governments who often don't know it is being sent to low-wage countries, such as India. It documented at least $75 million in contracts that has already gone to such companies.
Only one of the 18 companies identified, Tata Group, an India-based outsourcing giant that has offices in the United States, is listed among Iowa's vendors. At least 40 states had two or more of the companies listed, some having as many as 11.
A U.S. subsidiary of Tata, based in Omaha, Neb., is one of 70 companies pre-qualified to do information technology work for Iowa state agencies. The company has bid on Iowa projects, but has not been awarded any.
"They actually have not done any work for us," said Ashley Super, a purchasing agent for the Department of Administrative Services, who said the company qualifies for several different types of projects.
A phone number for Tata's Omaha office has been disconnected, and the firm's Midwest manager, Soubhik Ghosh, did not return an e-mail seeking comment.
The company does most of its work in India, but lists U.S. office addresses when applying for state government contracts, said Philip Mattera, the author of the report.
To avoid supporting companies that send jobs overseas, states should require contractors to disclose where they plan to actually perform work on contracts, he said. Governors in Minnesota and Missouri already have issued executive orders to do that.
"The time to adopt public policies to address this issue is now -- while government offshoring is still somewhat limited -- not when it has already become a pervasive and entrenched practice," the report concluded.
Ben Gran, a spokesman for Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, said the report indicates "outsourcing of state contracts is not a major problem in Iowa," but that the governor didn't rule out taking action in the future.
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