What is an A-76 study and how does it work?
An A-76 study is a competition of government-operated activities and the private sector to determine whether commercial activities can be done more economically and efficiently by contract or an in-house workforce. The Office of Management and Budget issued guidance, in a 1966 Congressional Circular by the same name, to govern cost competitions between government-operated commercial activities and the private sector. A-76 studies fall into two categories – streamlined competition or standard competition. In a streamlined competition, an activity can be converted directly to contract once cost effectiveness is proven and the activity contains 10 or fewer civilians. Any function with more than 10 civilians must undergo a standard competition – the second type of study. In a standard competition, the government develops a most efficient organization (MEO) to compete against the private sector.
