The Evolving Contingency Contracting Market PKSOI Papers | Page 22

cording to the Office of Federal Procurement Policy,
more than one out of every six dollars of the $530 billion federal government budget is spent on contractors.24 Although sourcing manpower in complex environments is a small proportion of that overall figure,
both the USG and private industry actors realize the
value of responsible, ethical sourcing for alternative
manpower. The impetus for principled talent acquisition means that certain companies choose to go to
great lengths to ensure, at the least, compliance with
U.S. requirements, or at the best, exceeding mandates.
The most successful companies actually reinvest in
community development from which the labor force
hails, in order to improve the standard of living and
the quality of life for the work force and their families.
FSI Worldwide (FSI) began life in 2006 as a specialist supplier of former Gurkhas to the security industry. While this still forms a significant part of the
business, the key elements of the FSI business model
(the recruitment, leadership and management of high
quality, ethically sourced personnel) are concepts that
apply equally to civilians as to former military personnel. As such, FSI has developed a highly efficient and
cost effective model for the recruitment and management of skilled and unskilled labor for the construction, facilities management, and oil and gas and hospitality sectors, in addition to security staff, which it
continues to provide to a large client base.25
FSI’s model is at odds with longstanding abusive
recruiting standard practices, wherein a former Gurkha soldier would be expected to pay a recruiter about
$5,000 for the opportunity to work. The challenge is
the vast majority of the Gurkha candidates will not
have thousands of dollars for the initial payment to
the recruiter, forcing the recruit to take out a loan, ob-

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