Switch to private maintenance company may have left Walter Reed Army Medical Center understaffed

[babylonsister]

http://www.amny.com/news/health/ny-uswalt115125668mar11,0,379415.story

Switch to private maintenance company may have left Walter Reed Army Medical Center understaffed
The Washington Post

March 11, 2007

WASHINGTON - The scandal over dilapidated housing for outpatients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center has focused attention on the decision to replace Army employees who maintained the hospital with a contractor connected to the Bush administration and to a Halliburton subsidiary.

Commanders say the move left the building maintenance staff undermanned.

The Post has reported that in addition to bureaucratic delays in medical care, outpatients are housed in older buildings that have black mold, cockroaches, leaky plumbing, broken elevators and other problems.

Some Democratic lawmakers have questioned hiring IAP Worldwide Services, which won a $120-million contract last year to maintain and operate Walter Reed facilities.

The decision reversed a 2004 finding by the Army that it would be more cost-effective to keep the work in-house. After IAP protested, Army auditors ruled that the cost estimates offered by in-house federal workers were too low.

On Friday, the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal workers union, blamed pressure put on the Army from the White House's Office of Management and Budget for the decision to privatize its civilian workforce.

more...

[OHdem10]

1. Add this to your thoughts

The Company is same Company who screwed up Katrina
in NOLA. Also a subsidiary of Haliburton. Do
you see a pattern here???

Conservatives want to privatize everything and out
source the rest---No wonder this country is in such
dire straighs.

[TreasonousBastard]

2. No, it's not...

a subsidiary of Halliburton- although it may be worse.

It's run by ex-Treasury Secretary Snow and two ex-Halliburton executives.