1999 Comercial Activities Inventory
Commercial Activities Database
The term "commercial activity" appears twice in the legislation of the Commonwealth Competition Council:
First, the term is defined in Section 2.2-2620 of the Code of Virginia. The 1998 Virginia General Assembly added this definition to the Virginia Government Competition Act of 1995. "'Commercial activity' means performing services or providing goods that can normally be obtained from private enterprise."
The second time the term "commercial activity" appears under the Commonwealth Competition Council is in Section 2.2-2623 of the Code of Virginia, under the heading of unsolicited proposals:
"The Governor or the General Assembly may direct any state agency to perform a public/private performance analysis covering any commercial activity for which the Council has received a qualifying unsolicited proposal from a private entity that is consistent with the Council's purposes and duties as provided in Section 2.2-2622 of the Code of Virginia." This does not apply to transportation-related projects initiated under the Public-Private Transportation Act of 1995.
When the definition was added in 1998 under the Commonwealth Competition Council, the Council surveyed all state agencies and institutions to determine what commercial activities were being conducted by state personnel. The information provided here is a detailed statewide summary of these activities. It must be noted that the following state agencies and institutions did not respond to the survey and their numbers are therefore not reflected in the totals: Departments of Corrections, General Services, Fire Programs, Minority Business Enterprise, and Gunston Hall Plantation, State Board of Elections, Virginia Port Authority, and the Medical College of Virginia Hospital.
The commercial activity surveys indicated that the private sector provides a great deal of services to the Commonwealth. These surveys were not designed to evaluate quality or cost of services, but to assist Cabinet Secretaries, agency heads, and heads of institutions in reviewing the consistency of how activities are performed and to invite meaningful dialogue among and between management personnel.
The Commonwealth Competition Council is pleased to provide the first state level inventory of commercial activities prepared by a state government. This is a web database with full search capability to permit analysis by government, citizens or the business community. The database lists the commercial activities performed by agencies and institutions to include the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) positions involved in providing the service. Agencies can use this information to seek ways to evaluate the costs, benefits, and possible consequences of alternative strategies to determine the best way to accomplish their respective goals, objectives, and mission.
A FTE is defined in this case as 1,776 annual productive work hours for an employee. It excludes non-productive time such as vacation, training, sick leave, etc. While the numbers reflected in the database are based on the federal level of 1,776, it is recognized that a FTE for Virginia government is budgeted for 2,080 hours annually.
Commonwealth of Virginia
1999 Survey of Commercial Activities
Virginia Totals
205 commercial activities identified
37,555.23 full-time equivalent state employees
provided these services
66,698,095.66 hours spent annually in these services
Virginia totals (High to low in Annual Hours Spent)
Virginia totals (alphabetically)
The Council advocates the development and implementation of a competitive program for state agencies and institutions to ensure competition for the provision or production of government services. The performance can be either from the public or the private sector as determined by the specific facts.
We welcome your questions or comments on the commercial activities database. Please send them to Competition@dpb.virginia.gov.