GOVERNMENT WORK

 

Republicans for many years have demonized government employees as overpaid and inefficient and supported outsourcing government work to private sector contractors who Republicans said would do the work more efficiently and for less money.  

 

The poor workmanship of 47 private sector contractors in setting up a web site where people could buy health insurance has been the dominant news story for several weeks.

Some of those contractors with amounts of their contracts --Deloitte Consultants $12,921,093.80, SERCO $68,339,812.00.  For a complete list with amounts paid go to Google and type in “Contractors working on the ACA.”

 

29 of these 47 contractors and their employees contributed $32 million to federal candidates and political parties.  Some of the 47 contractors with amounts of their political contributions are Quality Software Services,  $3,609,103, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, $3,456,523, University of California (SF) $3,363,813.00,  Verizion Business Network Services, $4,167,997.00, General Dynamics, $2,403,354.00

 

Democrats and Republicans agree the web site these 47 contractors set up is not a workable web site.  Thousands of people have had difficulty or been unable to purchase health insurance online.

 

Other examples where contractors did not perform their work in an acceptable (workmanlike) manner.

 

Combat troops in Iraq were placed on food rations because contractors refused to take supplies into combat zones.

 

 Contractors  wasted or lost due to fraud $12 million dollars a day in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001--- a total of $60 billion according to a report of the Wartime Contracting Commission.

 

USIS corporation conducted  background security checks on Edward Snowden and Aaron Alex and gave them secret clearance. 

 

The 100 year old 5,500 room Walter Reed Army Medical Center was closed in 2011 due to rodent and cockroach infestation, stained carpets, cheap mattresses, mold and other signs of deplorable neglect found during the time private sector contractor IAP collected $120 million to manage and operate Walter Reed.

 

The number of private federal contractors has soared to 7.5 million, four times bigger than the federal civilian work force.  There are so many contractors doing government work some refer to them as the “fourth branch of government.” In Iraq there were 180,000 contractors, more than the number of U.S troops.

During the G. W. Bush administration the amount of taxpayer dollars paid to  contractors to do government work  almost doubled -- $540.8 billion in 2007 the largest amount spent in any year in U.S. history.  

 

In 2010 70% of the U.S. budget for intelligence was paid to 1,931 private contractors whose employees worked on counterterrorism, homeland security, and intelligence at 10,000 locations across the country.

 

A study by the non partisan Project on Government Oversight found government contractors paid their employees on average $76,000.00 compared to $57,000.00 paid to government employees doing the same work.  Hiring government workers would be less expensive than hiring contractors in 33 of the 35 occupations studied.

 

A study of the 10 largest contracts awarded to private sector contractors by the Bush administration during the war in Afghanistan and Iraq were awarded without competitive bids, to contractors who employed former high ranking government officials, or who had close ties to members of Congress.  These 10 contractors paid $12.7 million to Republican politicians

 

Halliburton, headed by Dick Cheney before becoming Vice-President, collected 5 times more money than any other contractor--$39.5 billion