With Whitehall increasingly contracting out tasks to the private sector, Maude has argued that the civil service needs to improve radically its procurement and commissioning performance.
The unions strongly object to this practice, and they are arguing for limits on Verizon's ability to contract out certain tasks.
The then-prime minister's drive to contract out public-sector tasks to the private sector laid the foundations for firms taking over such services as school and hospital meals, buildings maintenance and even staff training.
Though he contracts out certain tasks, Stevenson is essentially a one-man show, as adept at chassis welding and coachwork as he is at mechanical restoration.
There are already electronic services to help this process along, such as Amazon's "Mechanical Turk," by which employers can contract out thousands of small tasks online without having to pay taxes, overtime, or the minimum wage.
Contracting out tasks is generally not limited to project work and affects most departments in a company, from the drilling department through to the catering services.
The focus on the bottom line has led publicly traded firms to increase outsourcing of manufacturing and professional jobs, defined as contracting out tasks and functions deemed outside companies' core strengths.
The HMOs then make their profits by contracting out the task for less, usually striking bulk deals with large, integrated providers.
Airlines are now in charge of security, a task they contract out to low-bidding private security firms that pay workers little more than the minimum wage.
The Allens and their company worked for Scientific Applications International Corporation, which had a contract with New York City, which it satisfied mostly by handing out tasks to subcontractors like TechnoDyne, which was a certified minority- and female-owned company.
