AFSCME Privatization Update

Source: South Florida Business Journal, Friday, May 9, 2008 - 9:11 AM EDT

An audit claims Wackenhut Corp. billed Miami-Dade Transit about $6.02 million over three years for work its security officers did not do.

Wackenhut said it disagreed with the methodology used by the auditor.

...... Wackenhut is currently responsible for three contracts with the county -- the care and custody of juvenile detainees at the Juvenile Assessment Center, security services for Miami-Dade Transit and security services for a Public Works Special Taxing District.

Miami Dade Audit & Management Services

Posted by Info Center at 3:27 PM in Corrections | Horror Stories | Public Safety | Permalink
Tags: Florida

Source: Associated Press, May 6, 2008

A defense contractor accused of overcharging the U.S. government for radar components pleaded guilty Monday to obstruction and will pay $9.5 million in fines, federal authorities said. (.pdf)

Herley Industries, based in Lancaster County, Pa., admitted to two counts of obstructing audits of bids to supply components for Navy and Air Force radar systems. Its former chairman Lee N. Blatt, 80, pleaded guilty to failing to create and maintain tax records; he was sentenced to a year's probation, community service and a $25,000 fine.

Posted by Info Center at 10:25 AM in Federal | Horror Stories | Permalink

Source: Associated Press (DC), May 6, 2008 - 8:46am

The D.C. finance office will scrap a $120 million computerized tax system that was strongly criticized by auditors.

According to a report obtained by The (Washington) Examiner, the automated system routinely fails and forces workers to create duplicate reports by hand. The report says the system has left the city open to corruption and cost millions of dollars in uncollected revenue.

A spokesman for Accenture says auditors hired by the city did not understand the high-tech system, which led them to make critical errors.

Posted by Info Center at 3:15 PM in Horror Stories | Information Technology | Tax Collection | Permalink
Tags: District of Columbia

Source: BY RUMMANA HUSSAIN, Chicago Sun Times (IL), April 30, 2008

Cathy and Richard Bedard worried that something was wrong on the bus that took two of their three special-needs children to school. So the Berwyn couple slipped a tape recorder in their 13-year-old daughter Tiffany's backpack to investigate. They couldn't believe their ears when they pushed play. Cathy Bedard threw up.

"F - - - ing little monster," a man groused at 17-year-old Rick, who has Down syndrome. There were also jokes about tying kids to the roof of the bus, threats of breaking a child's finger and chuckling when a disabled student was escorted to another seat in order to "irritate" a classmate.

...... The driver and a bus aide, Eugene Church, were suspended from driving students in the Morton School District 201, which hired First Student Inc. to transport eight disabled children to a special-needs school in Chicago.

But the district learned that the two men were allowed to work elsewhere following a six-week suspension after the Jan. 17 recording surfaced, so the district is reviewing its $1.5 million annual contract with First Student and will try to bid the contract out by the end of the school year, district spokesman Dan Proft said.

Posted by Info Center at 2:02 PM in Horror Stories | School Bus | Schools K-12 | Permalink
Tags: Illinois

Source: By Elizabeth Benton, New Haven Register (CT), Sat, Apr 19, 2008

State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has begun a probe of beleaguered school lunch provider Aramark Corp., citing concerns about "reports of deficient food quality and service" and inappropriate handling of food rebates and discounts. In a Friday letter to Aramark General Counsel Bart Colli, Blumenthal "strongly urged" Aramark to comply with Freedom of Information Act requests submitted by local unions, and requested Aramark provide similar information to his office by April 28.

...... Aramark is fighting a Freedom of Information Act request for Aramark's financial records from the Service Employees International Union, which claims the company has run deficits in its food service programs nationwide.

Posted by Info Center at 3:39 PM in Food Services | Horror Stories | Schools K-12 | Permalink
Tags: Connecticut

Source: Casey Seiler, Times Union (NY), Friday, May 2, 2008

There's a long list of people who should feel cheated by the revelation that some public entities have for years been handing out pension credits to private contractors. The investigation began by looking at lawyers who handled routine work for the Hamilton-Fulton-Montgomery BOCES cooperative and several downstate school districts, but it's expanding.

In a grim season for reform, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and Comptroller Tom DiNapoli deserve credit for going after a practice that was as long-standing as it is egregious.

...... But there's another class of New Yorker that has an even more righteous claim to anger over this mess, and that's anyone paying into a legitimately earned government pension -- state workers, teachers, local government employees among them.

Posted by Info Center at 11:35 AM in Horror Stories | Permalink
Tags: New York

Source: By CAROLYN FEIBEL, Houston Chronicle (TX), May 2, 2008, 12:03AM

SimDesk Technologies, the company that provided online computer applications to Houston residents through a controversial contract with the city, has gone out of business.

..... At the behest of former Mayor Lee Brown, the city awarded SimDesk a $9.5 million contract in 2002 with the hopes that the service would help bridge the "digital divide."

.......The contract was controversial from the beginning, with accusations that J. Dennis Piper, the city's technology director at the time, had favored the company in the bidding process.

..... As part of the amended contract, the city stopped paying SimDesk in 2004, having paid only $2.5 million on the contract. SimDesk agreed to continue providing the service to 800,000 public users until 2010. But no more than 30,000 people ever used SimDesk through the city's contract, Lewis said.

Posted by Info Center at 11:31 AM in Horror Stories | Information Technology | Permalink
Tags: Texas

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, Fri, May. 2, 2008

Too many inmates are dying at Delaware County's jail.

Since 2005, at least eight inmates have died at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility in Thornton, the only privately run jail in Pennsylvania. The latest fatality is Kenneth Kallenbach, 39, who died April 24 after contracting pneumonia at the lockup. He had been held there awaiting trial since mid-March.

.........GEO Group, which operates the facility, has faced lawsuits over these deaths. It has problems elsewhere. In Texas, where GEO runs more than a dozen prisons, it has come under criticism for alleged mismanagement and foul conditions. One inspector called an adult facility in Texas operated by GEO the worst he'd ever seen.

........Delaware County has been paying GEO more than $30 million annually to run its jail. County officials have boasted that they were saving $1 million per year by outsourcing the prison operation. They should be asking whether another outfit could do a better job, or whether this for-profit model is even working.

Posted by Info Center at 11:19 AM in Corrections | Horror Stories | Permalink
Tags: Pennslyvania

Source: By KAREN AYRES SMITH, The Dallas Morning News (TX), Saturday, April 5, 2008

AUSTIN - Texas charter schools have reaped $26 million in undeserved state money by filing incorrect student attendance reports, according to state financial records.

The Texas Education Agency, which oversees public education in the state, is working to recover $17 million of the $26 million from nearly half of the charters now operating in Texas. TEA records show that 20 schools went out of business before the state could recover its money, leaving taxpayers holding a $9 million bag of debt.

Posted by Info Center at 3:36 PM in Horror Stories | Schools K-12 | Permalink
Tags: Texas

Source: Associated Press (TX), Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Law enforcement officials are trying to understand how a convicted felon managed to escape from jail without anyone noticing his absence for a full day.

.......... Pena was being held at the privately operated Central Texas Detention Facility for violating terms of his supervised release.

.......... The facility is operated by The GEO Group. A company spokesman did not immediately respond to a phone message left By The Associated Press early Tuesday morning.

Posted by Info Center at 10:43 AM in Corrections | Horror Stories | Permalink
Tags: Texas

Source: By Tom LoBianco, Washington Times, March 31, 2008

ANNAPOLIS -- A state lawmaker says Montgomery County is "exploiting a loophole" in state law designed to keep speed-camera operators from profiting off the number of speeding tickets issued.

.......... The county reached an agreement in 2006 with Dallas-based Affiliated Computer Services Inc. (ACS) on a camera system that deploys six vans with speed cameras and 13 stationary speed cameras, as of December. County officials plan to expand to 30 fixed speed cameras by the end of the year.

According to Transportation Article 21-809(j) of the Maryland Code, "If a contractor operates a speed monitoring system on behalf of Montgomery County, the contractor's fee may not be contingent on the number of citations issued or paid."

........ But according to the minutes of a Jan. 29, 2007, meeting of the Rockville City Council, during which legislators approved a "rider bid" to install cameras in the city as part of the ACS contract with the county, ACS gets paid "$16.25 per paid citation for each fixed site and $16.25 per paid citation or $2,999.00 per month per deployed mobile unit whichever is greater."

Posted by Info Center at 2:29 PM in Horror Stories | Information Technology | Permalink
Tags: Maryland

Source: Teamster's news release, March 25, 2008

The family of deceased Waste Management, Inc. (WMI) mechanic Raul Figueroa from West Palm Beach, Florida, joined safety advocates, concerned local politicians and the Teamsters Union for the release of an investigative report (.pdf) that found serious safety problems at the solid waste giant at Teamsters Local 769 in North Miami, Florida.

....... The National Commission of Inquiry into the Worker Health and Safety Crisis in the Solid Waste Industry launched an investigation into safety issues at WMI and found systemic problems within the company, characterizing WMI's safety program as using an "archaic, misguided approach".

....... The report found that 40 years after Martin Luther King Jr. gave his life in an effort to fight for civil and worker rights for striking sanitation workers in Memphis, the same issues that led to the strike remain prevalent in the industry even today. The questionnaire revealed that these workers still face very real threats to their health on a daily basis. Long hours and the handling of hazardous materials without proper safety equipment are part of their daily routine.

Posted by Info Center at 2:27 PM in Horror Stories | Waste Management | Permalink

Source: University of Maine news release, March 25, 2008

A newly released briefing paper by the University of Maine Bureau of Labor Education on the pitfalls and problems that can occur when privatizing certain state, municipal or institutional services, concludes that the practice remains risky and problematic.

The paper, "Privatization Pitfalls Update, 2008," (.pdf) brings up to date an analysis of contracting out certain government or institutional services that was originally done in 1998.

....... The bureau draws examples from a variety of sources, including the U.S. General Accounting Office, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, previous UMaine Bureau of Labor Education studies, research by Cornell University and newspaper accounts of fraud and abuse by subcontractors in various states.

Posted by Info Center at 10:41 AM in Horror Stories | Overview/General | Permalink

Source: By KATE HOWARD, Tennessean (TN), March 24, 2008

While other inmates at the Metro Detention Facility took an hour out of their cells most days, a mentally ill inmate named Frank Horton never left his cell for any recreation or a shower -- for nine straight months. It's unclear if he even saw a doctor.

Living conditions for the inmate, a nonviolent offender before entering prison, changed only after an employee complained to the Metro Public Health Department on Jan. 31 and he was forced out for a shower and a mental health evaluation.

The situation raises questions about the treatment of inmates at the 1,200-bed prison where many of Nashville's convicted felons serve their time.

...... Under Metro's contract with CCA, the Davidson County Sheriff's Office oversees the policies of the prison. The health department monitors the health records of its prisoners, as it does at the county jails.

According to Hall, the state of Tennessee pays the sheriff's office about $17 million a year that is used to pay CCA for operating the prison.

Posted by Info Center at 11:24 AM in Corrections | Horror Stories | Permalink
Tags: Tennessee

Source: By Rachel E. Stassen-Berger, Pioneer Press (MN), 03/05/2008

Minnesota on Tuesday ended its rocky, five-year relationship with a company that was supposed to create a computerized database to quickly sort people into one of the state's health-care programs.

....... Brian Osberg, an assistant commissioner at the Department of Human Services, said the state decided it would be better off developing HealthMatch without the company, ACS State and Local Solutions.

Posted by Info Center at 2:30 PM in Horror Stories | Information Technology | Permalink
Tags: Minnesota

Source: By STEVE SCHULTZE, Journal Sentinel (WI), Feb. 29, 2008

A nearly 5-year-old computerized medical records system for inmates at the Milwaukee County Jail and the House of Correction in Franklin has failed to provide more than $1 million in expected savings and has worked so poorly it should be trashed, a new audit (.pdf) says.

..... The vendor chosen for the system, Illinois-based Seaquest Technologies, did not have experience designing records systems for correctional facilities.

Posted by Info Center at 10:29 AM in Horror Stories | Information Technology | Permalink
Tags: Wisconsin

Source: By Katherine Gregg, Providence Journal (RI), Tuesday, February 5, 2008

After a months-long inquiry last winter, the Senate Government Operations Committee yesterday issued a report slamming the Carcieri administration for giving a state staffing contract worth up to $11 million annually to a fledgling company under terms -- offered no other potential bidders -- that amounted to an "interest-free loan" from the state.

..... Among the key findings: The executive branch "inhibited" the Senate inquiry, "violated the spirit of the Access to Public Records Act" by withholding requested documents; and undermined the basic tenets of competitive bidding by offering to front the money to make each biweekly payroll to the newly incorporated Smart Staffing Services Inc., without giving the same opportunity to any other company.

Posted by Info Center at 1:40 PM in Horror Stories | Human Resources | Permalink
Tags: Rhode Island

Source: By KEN DIXON, Connecticut Post, 01/31/2008

A multi-year investigation (.pdf) into a Rowland-era sweetheart contract to privatize Connecticut's worker's compensation claims, indicates the state may have overpaid tens of millions of dollars. The no-bid contract, awarded through the state Department of Administrative Services, used $80 million in state bonding funds, usually used for long-term capital construction projects.

....... Blumenthal, in a morning news conference in his office, said that while there was no apparent criminal activity - and no written order from Rowland to hire the consultants - the state clearly overpaid a consulting company to settle hundreds of worker's compensation claims, using college interns who were paid $105 per hour. He said that state employees were clearly capable of settling the claims, but in the move to privatize the work, taxpayer funds were misspent.

..... He said MRM Consulting, Inc. made a "deeply flawed" consultant's report advising an outside contractor be hired.

...... A firm called ACE Financial Solutions, LLC, was paid $80 million. About $60 million was spent to settle about 545 of the 600 worker's compensation claims and ACE has been collecting interest on the remaining $20 million.

Posted by Info Center at 11:24 AM in Audits/Reporting | Horror Stories | Workers Comp | Permalink
Tags: Connecticut

Source: By STEVE SCHULTZE, Journal Sentinel (WI), Feb. 1, 2008

Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. on Thursday blasted the private security firm hired to guard local buses, questioning whether the $1.1 million annual cost was worth it.

Wackenhut Corp., an international company headquartered in Florida, has provided security for Milwaukee County Transit System buses since 1993. Clarke said in a letter to the County Board that the company had "top-heavy administration that leads to fewer people actually performing a security function."

...... Clarke said Wackenhut had refused to provide detailed information about its bus security operations to his department. He also said Wackenhut guards spent too little time riding buses.

Posted by Info Center at 10:59 AM in Horror Stories | Public Safety | Transportation | Permalink
Tags: Wisconsin

Source: By LEE WILLIAMS and ESTEBAN PARRA, The News Journal (DE), Friday, February 1, 2008

Continued poor performance by the Department of Correction's medical vendor could hamper the department's efforts to get out from under supervision by the U.S. Justice Department, according to a new report by an independent monitor overseeing the state prison system.

Correctional Medical Services, a private company Delaware pays millions of dollars a year to provide medical care to inmates, suffers from a "lack of stable and effective leadership," independent monitor Joshua W. Martin III wrote in a 229-page report released Thursday.

Posted by Info Center at 10:52 AM in Corrections Health | Horror Stories | Permalink
Tags: Delaware

Source: Associated Press (IN), January 29, 2008

Six black nurses sued a private company operating a Marion County jail Monday, alleging they were fired or forced to leave their jobs because of racism or exposing medical practices that put inmates at risk.

The 10-count complaint alleges Corrections Corp. of America retaliated against the six because they had complained to their supervisors that inmates did not receive prescribed medications, were given wrong medications or were given other patients' drugs to save money.

Posted by Info Center at 10:39 AM in Corrections Health | Horror Stories | Permalink
Tags: Indiana

Source: By David Haldane, Los Angeles Times (CA), January 24, 2008

A contract Orange County employee who worked with welfare recipients was arrested Wednesday for allegedly stealing more than $300,000 from the county, authorities said.

....... At the time of the alleged crimes -- from 2005 to 2007 -- Gonzalez was a supervisor for Arbor Education and Training, an independent company contracted to provide services including financial assistance for housing and basic needs.

Posted by Info Center at 3:15 PM in Horror Stories | Social Services | Permalink
Tags: California

Source: By ABBY GOODNOUGH, New York Times, January 24, 2008

The two companies that managed the design and construction of the costly Big Dig project here will pay more than $400 million in an agreement with the government over leaky tunnels and a fatal ceiling collapse.

US Attorney Office - District of Massachusetts news release: Big Dig Management Consultant and Designers To Pay $450 Million (.pdf)

Posted by Info Center at 10:43 AM in Horror Stories | Transportation | Permalink
Tags: Massachusetts

Source: Wyatt Buchanan, San Francisco Chronicle (CA), Tuesday, January 8, 2008

San Francisco leaders are considering changes to the 15-year-old agreement that turned over control of the city's zoo to a nonprofit group, effectively relinquishing the city's direct oversight of an institution that at the time faced the loss of its accreditation because of conditions that one report described as "literally disgraceful."

Mayor Gavin Newsom ordered the Recreation and Park Commission on Monday to hold a special public hearing into last month's attack by one of the zoo's tigers, which killed one visitor and injured two others. The hearing, Newsom said, would review the management agreement between the city and the San Francisco Zoological Society to "further investigate how this incident could have happened and how we can prevent future incidents."

Posted by Info Center at 2:02 PM in Horror Stories | Zoos | Permalink
Tags: California

Source: By STACY FORSTER and PATRICK MARLEY, Journal Sentinel (WI), Jan. 9, 2008

For the second time in just over a year, a state publication has been sent to tens of thousands of people with their Social Security numbers printed on the mailing labels.

About 260,000 participants in Medicaid programs were sent a recent mailing that included the recipients' Social Security numbers above their names on the address labels, the state Department of Health and Family Services said Tuesday.

........ While 485,000 copies were supposed to go out, the mailing was stopped after a recipient caught the error, according to EDS Corp., the vendor responsible for processing the mailings. State officials said they learned of the mistake Monday night.

Posted by Info Center at 11:23 AM in Horror Stories | Information Technology | Permalink
Tags: Wisconsin

Source: By Dave Flessner and Michael Davis, Chattanooga Times Free Press (TN), Wednesday, January 09, 2008

The city of Chattanooga has dumped at least $15 million in the past seven years into a sludge treatment process that was improperly designed and has yet to work, according to a new internal audit. (.pdf)

Mayor Ron Littlefield said Tuesday he wants the contractor hired in 2001 to develop the system -- US Filter, now owned by Siemens Water Technologies Corp. -- to fix the problem at the Moccasin Bend Wastewater Treatment Plant as soon as possible. He said he will be meeting with a company official to discuss possible solutions within the next week.

Posted by Info Center at 11:15 AM in Horror Stories | Water & Sewer | Permalink
Tags: Tennessee

Source: BY AMANDA N. MAYNORD, Nashville City Paper (TN), January 8, 2008

For three months last year the building that houses the Davidson County Election Commission was not guarded on Saturdays, but the city was being billed anyway according to Metro officials.

.......... Wackenhut Corp., which has provided security through a subcontractor for the building since May 20, 2007, as well as several other Metro buildings billed the city under a long-term contract the company has to provide security to Metro government buildings. The subcontractor, Specialized Security Consultants, Inc. and Wackenhut have come under fire in connection with A Dec. 23 break-in at the Election Commission that resulted in the theft of two laptop computers containing the Social Security numbers of 337,000 registered Davidson County voters.

Posted by Info Center at 11:08 AM in Horror Stories | Public Safety | Public Works | Permalink
Tags: Tennessee

Source: Tomah Journal, January 3, 2006

Ah, the wonders of privatization.

On Dec. 10, locked doors greeted veterans seeking treatment at Veterans Administration clinics in Rice Lake and Hayward. Corporate Wellness & Fitness, the Kentucky company contracted to operate the clinics, cut and ran after just six months in Hayward and three months in Rice Lake. The company said it was losing $26,000 a month and that the VA reneged on promises to guarantee the venture's profitability. The Rice Lake clinic reopened Dec. 26 with VA personnel, but the Hayward clinic remains closed.

The fiasco raises numerous issues. Business Week magazine reported Corporate Wellness & Fitness "agreed to accept a fixed sum per month instead of having the VA reimburse it dollar for dollar ... It quickly felt pressure from the government to spend more on supplies and equipment than it had budgeted and could pay."

Posted by Info Center at 3:09 PM in Health | Horror Stories | Veterans | Permalink
Tags: Wisconsin

Source: By Deborah Yetter, The Courier-Journal (KY), Tuesday, December 18, 2007

A state audit found no evidence of savings in the state Medicaid program promised by the administration of former Gov. Ernie Fletcher, who claimed Medicaid reform as one of his top accomplishments in his failed re-election bid.

...... Luallen, a Democrat, said her office waited until after the Nov. 6 election to release the audit so it would not become an issue in the governor's race.

....... Medicaid spends about $300 million a year on three private contractors to process claims, manage information, operate a call system for members and operate its prescription drug program. But until recently they operated with little oversight or accountability.

In July, Medicaid hired an outside company, Accenture, to monitor the three other outside contractors -- even though Texas fired that company last year for poor performance on a contract.

........ State Sen. Ernesto Scorsone, a Lexington Democrat on the Health and Welfare Committee, said he's concerned about the growth in outside contractors for the Medicaid program listed in the audit report.

"I think the only winners are the outside vendors who have made money off the state," he said.

Posted by Info Center at 11:25 AM in Audits/Reporting | Health | Horror Stories | Social Services | Permalink
Tags: Kentucky

Source: Public Integrity news release, November 19, 2007

Center Unveils Windfalls of War II Investigation

Center for Public Integrity: "It's been four years since the Center released its acclaimed Windfalls of War investigation, which first named Halliburton as the largest single contractor in Iraq and revealed the most comprehensive list of the top Iraq and Afghanistan contractors available at the time. That list included more than 70 American companies that had been awarded up to $8 billion in contracts from 2002 through July 1, 2004. By the end of 2006, U.S. contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan have grown to $25 billion, while oversight has seriously deteriorated, according to a new Center analysis, Windfalls of War II. The Center report shows that KBR, Inc., formally known as Kellogg, Brown and Root and a Halliburton subsidiary until April 2007, continues to top the list at more than $16 billion in U.S. government contracts from 2004 to 2006. DynCorp International, at $1.8 billion, came in at a distant second...The Center assembled its list of the top 100 contractors, where the reported place of performance was in Iraq and Afghanistan, by analyzing the General Service Administration's Federal Procurement Data System. After reviewing this federal database, the Center was able to piece together the 100 companies that received the most contracts from fiscal years 2004 to 2006. However, even this publicly available federal database does not include all Iraq and Afghanistan contracts, including the ones originating at the Baghdad contracting agency. The Baghdad contracting agency has rebuffed Center efforts to obtain missing contracts. The Center is now seeking to acquire them through Freedom of Information Act requests."

Posted by Info Center at 11:42 AM in Federal | Horror Stories | Permalink
Tags: Iraq

Source: By TODD RUGER, Herald Tribune (FL), November 13, 2007

A jail nurse faces a felony drug charge after replacing an inmate's oxycodone pills with Tylenol and taking the prescription medicine home with her, the Sheriff's Office said.

The arrest comes less than two months after Armor Correctional Medical Services, the nurse's employer, started its contract to provide health care to Sarasota County inmates.

Posted by Info Center at 10:54 AM in Corrections Health | Horror Stories | Permalink
Tags: Florida

Source: By Mark Niquette, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH, Tuesday, October 30, 2007 6:23 PM

A state contractor has agreed to paid $300,000 to help defray the estimated $3 million cost related to the theft of a computer-back-up tape containing Social Security numbers and other sensitive information.

Compuware Corp., which worked on the state's new payroll and accounting system, is making the payment in part in response to the theft from a state intern's car and for ongoing support of project, according to an Oct. 18 agreement released today.

Posted by Info Center at 11:13 AM in Horror Stories | Information Technology | Permalink
Tags: Ohio

Source: By Bill Cotterell, Tallahassee Democrat (FL), Oct 15, 2007

There were little pre-teen beauty queens and balloons and lots of smiling faces among the local officeholders on hand when they cut the ribbon last month to open Florida's biggest privately operated state prison, a modern, 1,500-bed institution over in Graceville.

......... But just three days after the grand opening - but shouldn't they call it a "grand closing" when it's a prison? - the Department of Management Services sent out a couple of little letters that show the down side of privatization in general, and prison privatization in particular. The department fined both GEO and Corrections Corp. of America nearly $300,000 for excessive use of overtime in two other institutions.

......... GEO and Corrections Corp. of America didn't return calls asking for comment late last week. But in privatization generally - and prisons in particular - one sure way to do a job cheaper than the government can do it is to hire fewer people. If that means working them longer hours, it's probably cheaper to pay overtime than to hire more people and incur the expenses of Social Security, insurance coverage, vacation time, holidays, pensions and whatever other benefits employees of the private companies may receive.

Posted by Info Center at 1:22 PM in Corrections | Horror Stories | Permalink

Source: by JEREMY SCAHILL, The Nation, October 10, 2005

......... As business leaders and government officials talk openly of changing the demographics of what was one of the most culturally vibrant of America's cities, mercenaries from companies like DynCorp, Intercon, American Security Group, Blackhawk, Wackenhut and an Israeli company called Instinctive Shooting International (ISI) are fanning out to guard private businesses and homes, as well as government projects and institutions.

...... Blackwater's success in procuring federal contracts could well be explained by major-league contributions and family connections to the GOP. According to election records, Blackwater's CEO and co-founder, billionaire Erik Prince, has given tens of thousands to Republicans, including more than $80,000 to the Republican National Committee the month before Bush's victory in 2000.

Posted by Info Center at 1:45 PM in Federal | Horror Stories | Permalink

Source: Diane Carman, The Denver Post (CO), 10/16/2007

...... Here in Colorado, private firms supply everything, even bus drivers and prisons. Former Gov. Bill Owens was a believer in the 11th commandment, so contracts for public services during his terms exploded.

Unfortunately, oversight of those contracts didn't keep pace.

The most glaring example of the mess created by overconfidence in private contractors was the Owens administration's bumbling attempt to modernize state government through random, uncoordinated - and very expensive - information-technology systems.

Eight years and nearly $300 million later, Owens moved on, leaving his successor with a bunch of pricey computer systems that couldn't compute.

Among them:

Posted by Info Center at 1:40 PM in Horror Stories | Oversight/Contract Management | Permalink

Source: By MICHAEL MELIA, Associated Press (Puerto Rico), October 13, 2007

Elvia Tirado Polanco says she reluctantly handed over her black- and white-spotted mutt to animal control workers after they threatened that she would be evicted from her housing project for keeping a pet there.

........ Days later, however, Tirado was horrified to learn that dozens of pets seized this week in Barceloneta on Puerto Rico's north coast were instead thrown to their deaths from a bridge.

.... Mayor Sol Luis Fontanez said the town ordered the removal of the pets, but he blamed the massacre on a contractor hired to take the animals to a shelter.

Posted by Info Center at 11:05 AM in Horror Stories | Permalink

Source: By DAVE LIEBER, Star-Telegram (TX), October 14, 2007

.... The ringing phones are fallout from a major experiment in state government that nearly everyone involved calls a disaster. Texas tried to become the first state to outsource to private companies the administration of its top assistance programs such as food stamps, Medicaid and cash assistance for needy families.

The state hired a group of companies, led by technology consulting firm Accenture, for $899 million for five years to run call centers, update the department's technology systems and perform other duties. But the company's debut in several Central Texas call centers was such a disaster that state officials called the project off. By then, though, many longtime state employees had left, thinking their jobs were gone.

Posted by Info Center at 11:01 AM in Horror Stories | Social Services | Permalink

Source: Associated Press, October 05, 2007: 01:55 PM EST

Shares of Geo Group Inc. dropped Friday on concerns that it may lose more contracts in Texas, while shares of other private prison operators rose.

The Texas Youth Commission canceled a contract with Geo Group Tuesday, following an audit that said conditions at the Coke County Juvenile Justice Center were unsafe and unsanitary. The center was the largest private juvenile prison in Texas, and brought Geo Group about $2 million in revenue per quarter.

On Friday, AvondalePartners analyst Kevin Campbell said Texas state legislators are considering a review of Geo's other contracts in the state.

Posted by Info Center at 3:20 PM in Corrections | Horror Stories | Permalink

Source: US PRIG, 10/3/2007

Companies with immediate past histories of shoddy work and fraudulent practices are being rewarded with billions of dollars in federal contracts. The data suggest that the process by which the federal government currently spends $422 billion per year in taxpayer funds is insufficient to ensure that the American people receive good quality for goods and services purchased for the American people.

The rapid increase of federally contracted dollars--100 percent since 2000--makes outsourcing the fastest growing component of discretionary spending. The government's preference for using outside contractors to provide goods and services makes careful scrutiny of the process and the decisions more important than in the past. At present, loose rules, lack of competition, and limited accountability permit so-called 'bad actors' to receive contracts that put taxpayers and our money at risk.

For this report, we reviewed hundreds of records and found numerous cases of contractors with questionable performance or responsibility records receiving contracts without competition or sufficient time to determine the extent of the problems identified. While the report outlines specific contractor practices, it is as much an indictment of the flawed contracting process as it is about any single company.

The profiles included in this report illustrate how little consideration is given to past performance and contractor responsibility. None of the companies faced suspension or debarment from receiving contracts for the incidents detailed in this report. The range of contracts shows the breadth of the problem and a sampling of the companies involved. A few examples include:

Posted by Info Center at 2:12 PM in Federal | Horror Stories | Permalink

Source: By DAVID STOUT and JOHN M. BRODER, New York Times, October 1, 2007

Guards working in Iraq for Blackwater USA have shot innocent Iraqi civilians and have sought to cover up the incidents, sometimes with the help of the State Department, a report to a Congressional committee said today.

The report, based largely on internal Blackwater e-mail messages and State Department documents, depicts the security contractor as being staffed with reckless, shoot-first guards who were not always sober and did not always stop to see who or what was hit by their bullets. In one incident, the State Department and Blackwater agreed to pay $15,000 to the family of a man killed by "a drunken Blackwater contractor," the report said.

Posted by Info Center at 10:42 AM in Federal | Horror Stories | Permalink

Source: By Don Michak, Journal Inquirer (CT), 09/28/2007

Accenture, the giant consulting company at the center of the controversy over a stolen computer tape containing confidential information on Connecticut taxpayers and government agencies, was involved in three other high-profile data breaches last year.

The Bermuda-based corporation last week became the target of a civil lawsuit filed by Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who accused Accenture of negligence, unauthorized use of state property, and breach of its contract to implement the state's problem-plagued $124 million financial management system known as CORE-CT.

Posted by Info Center at 2:44 PM in Horror Stories | Information Technology | Permalink

Source: Associated Press (PA), Friday, September 28, 2007

PHILADELPHIA - Prison officials violated workplace discrimination laws when they fired a Muslim nurse who insisted on wearing a head scarf on the job, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission charged Thursday.

The agency charged in a lawsuit that The Geo Group Inc., a private company that operates the Delaware County Prison in Thornton, refused to make religious accommodations for Carmen Sharpe-Allen and other female Muslim employees.

Posted by Info Center at 10:57 AM in Corrections | Horror Stories | Permalink

Source: By JONATHAN WALTERS, Governing Magazine, September 2007

It's been just over a half a year since the Texas Health and Human Services Commission cancelled its $900 million, five-year contract with Accenture to run four call centers that would handle social services intake and screening over the phone. In the aftermath of the Texas contracting debacle, both the state and advocates have been working to pick up the pieces. Not surprisingly, though, state officials and advocates for children and family have a fairly divergent view of how it's going right now.

Posted by Info Center at 2:59 PM in Horror Stories | Social Services | Permalink

Source: By JONATHAN WALTERS, Governing Magazine, September 2007

Texas' first foray into a high-profile streamlining of social and health services delivery paid off impressively: In 1993, the Lone Star state won an Innovations in American Government award for its landmark effort to knit more than a dozen separate child care programs together through a "unitary" application. Even more revolutionary, parents and guardians no longer had to travel to a state welfare office to apply for the programs in person; they could do that by phone or mail.

Fast-forward to the spring of 2007, when Texas was back in the social and health services spotlight. This time, however, instead of emerging as a model of success, the state became Exhibit A in how to engineer a multimillion-dollar meltdown.

....... The reasons offered for the meltdown are manifold; the finger-pointing in the wake of the disaster has been dizzying. But everyone involved seems to own a piece of the problem. Contractors over-promised on performance. HHSC rushed to meet deadlines before people and systems were in place and ready to work. Hundreds of state workers experienced in the complex application and eligibility process were either terminated or left state service knowing that privatization was coming. Old and new computer systems didn't mesh, requiring vast amounts of information to be re-entered manually.

Posted by Info Center at 2:55 PM in Horror Stories | Social Services | Permalink

Source: By Dave Maass, Santa Fe Reporter (NM), September 26, 2007

Over the last year, whistle-blowers have come forward, auditors have released findings, legislative committees have convened. All concluded that Wexford Health Sources Inc., the private company that secured an exclusive contract in 2004 to provide health care to New Mexico inmates, cut corners at the cost of prisoners' well being.

Last year, SFR published an award-winning 15-part series focusing on health care professionals' allegations about the care in the prisons "The Wexford files."

Although Wexford's contract expired on June 30, 2007, inmates are now filing handwritten civil suits leveled at Wexford, the State of New Mexico and its private-prison contractor, the GEO Group.

Posted by Info Center at 1:09 PM in Corrections Health | Horror Stories | Permalink

Source: Janet Elliott, San Antonio Express (TX), 09/21/2007 10:56 PM CDT

Texas is still struggling with slow processing times for social service benefits and overburdened phone lines as it unwinds a failed privatization contract, health and human services officials said at a public hearing Friday.

They outlined plans for several smaller private contracts in the coming three years as the state continues transitioning to call centers where people apply over the phone for a host of state and federal benefits.

But state employees criticized the plan, saying it would be better to hire more state workers for local offices where people apply for benefits in person.

....... The Texas Health and Human Services Commission is developing the next steps in the transition to a new eligibility system. In March the state ended a troubled contract with Accenture, an outsourcing company the state had hired in 2005 to operate call centers and process applications for the Children's Health Insurance Program.

Posted by Info Center at 1:46 PM in Horror Stories | Social Services | Permalink

Source: Pioneer Press (MN), 09/22/2007 12:01:00 AM CDT

Ramsey County told 564 employees Friday that their Social Security numbers and employee ID numbers are among data apparently stolen from Accenture, the accounting firm that served as a consultant on a 2001 payroll study.

A letter to employees from county manager David Twa didn't include names, dates of birth, addresses or any other individual data.

Posted by Info Center at 1:42 PM in Horror Stories | Information Technology | Permalink

Source: SUSAN HAIGH, Associated Press (CT), 5:28 PM EDT, September 18, 2007

Connecticut is officially demanding that a Virginia company reimburse the state $6.2 million it spent on a failed upgrade of a major law enforcement database.

In a letter to Maximus Inc., Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said the firm failed to fix some 800 defects in the retooled database system, which state officials have not put into operation for fear it could endanger police and the public.

Posted by Info Center at 2:56 PM in Horror Stories | Information Technology | Permalink

Source: Michael Zeigler, Democrat & Chronicle (NY), August 23, 2007

A state commission has concluded that a private company gave inadequate mental health treatment to a teenager who hanged himself in Monroe County Jail.

A report by the state Commission of Correction stopped short of saying that Correctional Medical Services Inc. of St. Louis, which contracts with the county to provide medical care to jail inmates, was responsible for the death of 16-year-old Javon Leggett on Aug. 29, 2004.

Posted by Info Center at 2:20 PM in Corrections Health | Horror Stories | Permalink

Source: By JAIME GATTON, Mooresville Tribune (NC), Wednesday, August 29, 2007

CH2M Hill said this week it needs nine additional months to complete the design of the town's wastewater treatment plant expansion.

The firm also said it's going to need more money.

.......More specifically, CH2M Hill stated that the delay is due to the state setting limits on phosphorous discharges into Lake Norman. Now, said Wimberly, the design plans that CH2M Hill has developed the past year will have to be "tweaked" to accommodate the changes.

Osborne said CH2M Hill wasn't aware of the potential phosphorous limits until a meeting that the firm and town had with the state in April.

..... CH2M Hill's local experience has been a point of contention since October 2004, when the town's engineering and utilities departments unanimously recommended Black & Veatch to negotiate the scope and fee of Mooresville's treatment plant expansion.

Posted by Info Center at 10:13 AM in Horror Stories | Water & Sewer | Permalink

Source: By JAIME GATTON, Mooresville Tribune (NC), Wednesday, August 22, 2007

While Mooresville taxpayers wrestle with rising utility bills, largely to pay for the expansion of the town’s wastewater treatment plant, the company hired to design the project has been paid more than $150,000 for expenses ranging from airline tickets and $176 hotel rooms to chewing gum and $4.65 Starbucks coffees.

Many of the expenses turned in by the company, CH2M Hill, had no receipts and non-itemized receipts, but the town reimbursed them anyway, a Tribune examination shows.

Posted by Info Center at 1:11 PM in Horror Stories | Water & Sewer | Permalink

Source: By ED SEALOVER, THE GAZETTE (CO), August 22, 2007 - 12:02AM

The state auditor’s office blasted the Department of Labor and Employment for failing to oversee the development of a new computer system earlier this decade, saying problems that cost Colorado $24 million could have been found and addressed sooner.

The Labor Department contracted with a private firm in 2001 to create a computer system, known as Genesis, which would process unemployment benefits and taxes. After a series of missed deadlines and failed tests, the department canceled the project in December 2005 and received back just $8 million of the $32 million it had paid to Accenture.

....... An audit released Tuesday (.pdf) found that the department did not establish a project-management structure that involved three levels of oversight on the contractor, relying instead on Accenture to oversee and manage its project.

Posted by Info Center at 10:35 AM in Audits/Reporting | Horror Stories | Information Technology | Permalink

Source: Capital Times (WI), 8/21/2007 11:56 am

One of the reasons why this newspaper began editorializing years ago about the need for the state of Wisconsin to avoid doing business with Accenture, the contractor that was unfortunately given the responsibility of building a voter registration system, was our sense that the corporation had a troubling record of respecting its responsibilities.

……… Paying any more money to Accenture would be a travesty. Formally breaking ties with Accenture would seem to make sense, but it is essential that any transition assures that state employees will be able to quickly clean up any messes left by the contractor.

Posted by Info Center at 1:31 PM in Horror Stories | Information Technology | Permalink

Source: By Sarah Fenske, Phoenix New Times (AZ), August 9, 2007

For years, people have argued about who really runs Phoenix. The mayor? The city manager? City Council? But when it comes to city buses, the answer is all too clear. It's a bunch of French businessmen. Seriously.

As it turns out, most of the municipal buses in Phoenix, as well as the shuttle service at Sky Harbor, are run by subsidiaries of a French-based conglomerate named Veolia. That company makes its living by handling the municipal details that typically bore politicians to tears: trash removal, transportation management, and shuttle service.

Naturally, the company does it all for a fee. And in Phoenix, that fee just got a whole lot bigger.

....... The upshot is that, this summer, Phoenix agreed to increase Veolia's management fees by a collective $7 million on its two contracts — without shopping around.

By my calculation, Veolia is getting a 79 percent raise.

Posted by Info Center at 11:00 AM in Horror Stories | Transportation | Permalink

Source: By Renae Merle, Washington Post, Friday, August 17, 2007

A South Carolina defense contractor pleaded guilty yesterday to bilking the Pentagon out of $20.5 million over nearly 10 years by adding hundreds of thousands of dollars to the cost of shipping spare parts such as metal washers and lamps.

The parts were bound for key military installations, including those in Iraq and Afghanistan. In one instance, in 2006, the government paid C&D Distributors $998,798 in transportation costs for shipping two 19-cent washers. Charlene Corley, 47, co-owner of C&D Distributors, used the money to pay for luxury homes, cars, plastic surgery and jewelry, according to court documents.

Posted by Info Center at 10:53 AM in Federal | Horror Stories | Permalink

Source: By Lynn Bartels, Rocky Mountain News (CO), August 14, 2007

Dismayed lawmakers learned Monday that the state might have to scrap a new but flawed computer system for vehicle registrations that already has cost taxpayers nearly $11 million.

........ As for the Colorado State Titling and Registration System, or CSTARS, Huber said the state is still assessing how to proceed. She said her department and the attorney general are talking to the vendor, Avanade, a subsidiary of Accenture, a company that worked on two other troubled state computer projects.

Posted by Info Center at 11:02 AM in Horror Stories | Information Technology | Permalink

Source: By BEN GREENE, Associated Press, 08.09.07

A federal grand jury indicted a