section_path: Concerns and criticism/Non-career contracts
section_name: Non-career contracts
paragraph_text: Non-career contracts
  
  USAID frequently contracts with private firms or individuals for specialist services lasting from a few weeks to several years. It has long been asked whether USAID should more often assign such tasks to career U.S. government employees instead. United States government staff directly performed technical assistance in the earliest days of the program in the 1940s. It soon became necessary for the federal government technical experts to plan and manage larger assistance programs than they could perform by themselves. The global expansion of technical assistance in the early 1950s reinforced the need to draw on outside experts, which was also accelerated by Congress's requirement of major reductions of U.S. government staffing in 1953. By 1955, observers commented on a perceived shift toward re use of shorter-term contracts (rather than using employees with career-length contracts).
  
  USAID frequently contracts with private firms or individuals for specialist services lasting from a few weeks to several years. It has long been asked whether USAID should more often assign such tasks to career U.S. government employees instead. United States government staff directly performed technical assistance in the earliest days of the program in the 1940s. It soon became necessary for the federal government technical experts to plan and manage larger assistance programs than they could perform by themselves. The global expansion of technical assistance in the early 1950s reinforced the need to draw on outside experts, which was also accelerated by Congress's requirement of major reductions of U.S. government staffing in 1953. By 1955, observers commented on a perceived shift toward re use of shorter-term contracts (rather than using employees with career-length contracts).