Private contractor with connections to the Bush regime led to Walter Reed fiasco

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070312/REPOSITORY/703120364/1013/NEWS03

Democrats criticize Walter Reed contract

Some say outsourcing worsened conditions


By Steve Vogel and Renae Merle
The Washington Post


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March 12. 2007 8:00AM


The scandal over treatment of outpatients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., has focused attention on the Army's decision to privatize the facilities support workforce at the hospital, a move commanders say left the building maintenance staff undermanned.

Some Democratic lawmakers have questioned the decision to hire IAP Worldwide Services, a contractor with connections to the Bush administration and to KBR, a Halliburton subsidiary.

Last year, IAP won a $120 million contract 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.

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

Sen. Barbara Mikulski, a Maryland Democrat, charged last week that the Bush administration had unfairly blamed federal workers for problems "that are a direct result of the Bush administration's contracting out policy."

[Vincardog]

1. direct result of the Bush administration's contracting out policy. The CONservatives strike again

[caligirl]

2. wasn't that Safavian's office? abramoff friend?