Re: 'It Is Just Not Walter Reed'

On Mar 5, 5:45 am, "Jim Higgins" <gordian...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
'It Is Just Not Walter Reed'http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/04/AR200...



Among the most aggrieved are veterans who have lived with the open secret of
substandard, underfunded care in the 154 VA hospitals and hundreds of
community health centers around the country. They vented their fury in
thousands of e-mails and phone calls and in chat rooms.



To the Contrary! Walter Reed was privatized for Halliburton! That is
when services really fell apart!:

`http://www.rawstory.com/news/2007/
Bush_Administration_push_for_privatization_may_0303.html

Bush Administration push for privatization may have helped create
Walter Reed 'disaster'
Ron Brynaert
Published: Saturday March 3, 2007

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The Bush Administration's drive for privatization may be responsible
for the "deplorable" outpatient care for soldiers at Walter Reed Army
Medical Center, according to a top Democratic Congressman
investigating the scandal, which has already led to the resignation of
the Secretary of the US Army.

A five-year, $120 million contract awarded to a firm run by a former
executive from Halliburton - a multi-national corporation where Vice
President *** Cheney once served as CEO - will be probed at a
Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs hearing
scheduled for Monday.

A letter sent by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), chairman of the House
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, to Major General George
W. Weightman, the former commander at Walter Reed, asks him to
"address the implications of a memorandum from Garrison Commander
Peter Garibaldi sent through you to Colonel Daryl Spencer, the
Assistant Chief of Staff for Resource Management with the U.S. Army
Medical Command" in order to better prepare himself for his testimony
at the hearing.

"This memorandum, which we understand was written in September 2006,
describes how the Army's decision to privatize support services at
Walter Reed Army Medical Center was causing an exodus of 'highly
skilled and experienced personnel,'" Waxman's letter continues. "As a
result, according to the memorandum, 'WRAMC Base Operations and
patient care services are at risk of mission failure.'"

Waxman's letter states that "several sources have corroborated key
portions of the memorandum."

"We have learned that in January 2006, Walter Reed awarded a five-year
$120 million contract to a company called IAP Worldwide Services for
base operations support services, including facilities management,"
Waxman continues. "IAP is one of the companies that experienced
problems delivering ice during the response to Hurricane Katrina."

Waxman notes that IAP "is led by Al Neffgen, a former senior
Halliburton official who testified before our Committee in July 2004
in defense of Halliburton's exorbitant charges for fuel delivery and
troop support in Iraq."

Before the contract, over 300 federal employees provided facilities
management services at Walter Reed, according to the memorandum, but
that number dropped to less than 60 the day before IAP took over.

"Yet instead of hiring additional personnel, IAP apparently replaced
the remaining 60 federal employees with only 50 IAP personnel," Waxman
writes.

Waxman adds that "the conditions that have been described are
disgraceful," and that the Oversight Committee will "investigate what
led to the breakdown in services."

"It would be reprehensible if the deplorable conditions were caused or
aggravated by an ideological committment to privatized government
services regardless of the costs to taxpayers and the consequences for
wounded soldier," Waxman writes, alluding to the Bush Administration's
push for privatization.

A year ago, the Government Accountability Office "dismissed a protest
filed on behalf of employees at the Army's Walter Reed Medical Center,
ruling that the employee group had no standing to challenge the
outcome of a public-private job competition initiated prior to January
2005," GovExec.com reported.

"The American Federation of Government Employees, which provided
funding to back the protest, said the impetus to appeal came from
Walter Reed managers who were disappointed to see how the competition
process played out," Jenny Mandel reported in February of 2006. "While
the initial employee bid was $7 million less than that of IAP
Worldwide Services, a mid-stream solicitation change resulted in a
recalculation of the bids by all parties and in IAP's bid coming in $7
million lower, said John Threlkeld, a lobbyist for AFGE."

The article continues, "Threlkeld said the process for recalculating
the employee bid was flawed, resulting in the inflation of the
estimate that rendered it uncompetitive with IAP's bid."

On Saturday, the Army Times revealed that the Garibaldi memorandum
cited by Waxman states that "the push to privatize support services
there accelerated under President Bush's 'competitive sourcing'
initiative, which was launched in 2002."

Excerpts from Army Times article:

#

The letter said the Defense Department "systemically" tried to replace
federal workers at Walter Reed with private companies for facilities
management, patient care and guard duty - a process that began in
2000.

"But the push to privatize support services there accelerated under
President Bush's 'competitive sourcing' initiative, which was launched
in 2002," the letter states.

During the year between awarding the contract to IAP and when the
company started, "skilled government workers apparently began leaving
Walter Reed in droves," the letter states. "The memorandum also
indicates that officials at the highest levels of Walter Reed and the
U.S. Army Medical Command were informed about the dangers of
privatization, but appeared to do little to prevent them."

The memo signed by Garibaldi requests more federal employees because
the hospital mission had grown "significantly" during the wars in Iraq
and Afghanistan. It states that medical command did not concur with
their request for more people.

"Without favorable consideration of these requests," Garibaldi wrote,
"[Walter Reed Army Medical Center] Base Operations and patient care
services are at risk of mission failure."



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