As in worked in I nformation Technology . We hired contractors because the government did not have people with up-to-date technical skills. Why? Because the government was rooted in the bureaucratic systems of the past with no significant funding to recruit and train employees in the emerging technologies. The government does not usually move fast. While there are many good, dependable government employees, in critical projects it is difficult to limit the exposure of the few not so good employees. Uniform treatment and opportunity is baked into the system. If it costs more to fix the work of a poor employee that it did to pay them, that doesn’t make sense. It’s easy to replace contractors, and negative production employees occur in both government employment and from contractors. For political reasons, the government often operates under employment ceilings . When there is a shortage of needed staff, hiring contractors is an easy workaround. As for cost, it is more expensive per hou