  The American Veteran's On-Line News Magazine Click here to make VA Watchdog dot Org your homepage VA NEWS FLASH from Larry Scott at VA Watchdog dot Org -- 08-18-2008 |
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The American Veteran's On-Line News Magazine Click here to make VA Watchdog dot Org your homepage VA NEWS FLASH from Larry Scott at VA Watchdog dot Org -- 08-18-2008 |
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BENEFITS: THE NEXT STEP IN PRIVATIZING THE VA -- Secretary Peake: "...The decision has been made to seek private-sector support to implement this new program... We intend to move quickly to select a contractor..."
Story below:
------------------------- When Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) was pushing legislation for his New G.I. Bill, the VA worked diligently to defeat the measure. "The anticipated high benefit cost ... and the
anticipated administrative burden associated with this bill are all
problematic," said Keith M. Wilson, director of the education service
for the VA. Full story here... Daniel Cooper, the VA's undersecretary for
benefits, in Congressional testimony, said "The complexity of
eligibility rules, anticipated cost, and administrative burden associated
with this bill are all problematic." Cooper also spoke of
"significant administrative costs." Full story here... You get the idea. The VA did not want this bill to pass and if it did (and it did), they did not want to administer the program ... even though that is what the VA does .. administer veterans' benefits programs. Now, we have learned that the VA is going to outsource the administration of this program. This is just the next step in privatizing the VA.
AFGE (American Federation of Government Employees) is the union that represents many VA employees. Peake continues his letter, basically telling Ms. Lee that VA employees are out in the cold when it comes to handling the New G.I. Bill program. "...The decision has been made to seek private-sector support to implement this new program ... We intend to move quickly to select a contractor...," Peake wrote. Peake goes on to say that the VA will try to "minimize any adverse impact" on VA employees and asks Ms. Lee to work with him to implement the outsourcing contract. The letter was faxed from Secretary Peake to Ms. Lee on July 24, 2008. You can view the full letter ... click here... This outsourcing concept makes no sense. The VA argued that the costs of administering the program would be "problematic." So, they want to outsource it? Give it to a contractor who will charge way more than it would cost the VA to do it? The VA said implementing the program would be an "administrative burden." How can that be when the VA already has benefits people on staff who know how to administer such programs? This is just a giveaway ... another way to put
money into a private contractor's pocket ... and move forward with
privatizing the VA. More on privatizing the VA can be found here...
This program must be up and running by August 1, 2009. That gives the VA less than a year to find a contractor (probably no-bid and a buddy of the Secretary) and get all the people trained. It can't be done! VA has people in place to do this work. And, they can hire more, if needed, and have them trained by those already performing similar tasks. This will be more cost-effective and training will take much less time. And, to add insult to injury, Secretary Peake wants Ms. Lee and the AFGE to work with the VA to help implement an outsourcing program that will take away work from VA employees and give it to a private contractor. So, AFGE is fighting back: "AFGE last
week sought help from Virginia senator Jim Webb after VA announced it will
outsource the work of processing applications for education benefits under
the new GI bill Webb championed. In a letter sent to Webb's office, AFGE's
National Veterans Affairs Council President Alma Lee said VA has plans to
transfer to other VA offices more than 400 employees working in the
Education Division processing applications for benefits provided under the
old GI bill. VA will then staff this office with contract workers, who
will need to be trained to do the work these 400 employees already know
how to do. Lee said this absurd move would waste VA's time and the
taxpayer's dollar while uprooting workers, many of whom are veterans. Lee
suggested that VA train the current workers to apply the new law while
hiring veterans and temporary workers to help with the surge. AFGE also
filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office last week,
protesting outsourcing of federal work without competition."
Source here... Here is a comment from an administrator who runs the veterans' benefits program at a well-known college: "VA Education laws are complex, and it takes two years for a VA journeyman level person to learn everything involved in processing a claim and this private contractor is going to begin Aug 1, 2009. What will be the private contractor’s employees level of expertise? We get great service from the VA Education service ... We had a very bad experience with a private contract call center for VA education benefits about two years ago and I’m hoping we are not fixing to go through this again." This comment came to me via email. The New G.I. Bill legislation directs the VA Secretary to administer the program ... not to outsource it ... but, he does have the power to do this. We already have a great example of hiring an
outside contractor who has no knowledge of a government program to try to
"help" veterans. The Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS)
contracted with Lockheed Martin to straighten out the retro-pay mess.
Lockheed Martin just created a larger mess. That story is here...
Congress should jump on this with both feet and put an end to it before a contract is awarded. Outsourcing this program would be a waste of the taxpayers' money and cause needless delays and frustration for veterans. This is just plain wrong on so many counts. ----- ON THE WEB: For more information about the G.I. Bill, use the
VA Watchdog search engine ... click here ... AFGE web site is here ... National VA Council web site is here ... -------------------------
Don't forget to read all of today's VA News Flashes (click here) |
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