The Governor’s Private Sector Services, Inc. was a proposed nonprofit corporation composed of members of the business community and certain state governmental agencies. If approved by the Department of Labor, GPSS would operate Mississippi’s balance of state on-the-job training (OJT) activities mandated under Title II of the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA). At the time of the report, state level responsibility for administrative overview of the act was in the Governor’s Office of Job Development and Training, which contracted its balance of state OJT responsibilities to the Mississippi Employment Security Commission (MESC). The MESC also was responsible for providing CETA services at the local level. This report explored the past performance of the MESC in providing the balance of state OJT services and the planning and development of the proposed corporation.
The PEER Committee determined that no definite organizational structure on which the corporation was to be modeled and operated had been established. Staff had not been hired (except for a director and three marketing representatives), the method of training future employees was indefinite, no office facilities had been secured nor was their location definite, and no detailed line item budget had been established. Extensive and direct gubernatorial involvement in the development, make-up, and operations of GPSS had a negative impact on the proposal. The corporation’s employment practices would not be subject to control by the Classification Commission.
A comparative cost analysis showed that MESC could operate the balance of state OJT program with 55.5 percent fewer employees than GPSS and at a 48.8 percent lower administrative cost than GPSS. Therefore, the PEER Committee recommended that GPSS not be the service delivery agent for the balance of state OJT program. MESC, however, should institute immediately all measures necessary to improve its efficiency and effectiveness in providing manpower services.
For a paper copy of this report, contact PEER by telephone at 601-359-1226 or by e-mail at reports@peer.ms.gov.