Jun. 27, 2006 - 19:33 MDT

IT FOLLOWS

One might liken bureaucracy to a dog chasing its tail, however, this bureaucratic tail chasing is hurting people in drastic need of help. Ann Imse of the Rocky Mountain News has been covering the Rocky Flats fiasco (fiasco - my idea of it) has an article in this morning's Rocky Mountain News which adds the governments insults to the injuries already inflicted, to my way of thinking.

Quoted in full, then:

NUKE WORKERS' FUND GETS CRITICAL LOOK

'Improper,' GAO says of $26 million spent on contractors

"A federal program to compensate nuclear weapons workers for job-related illness spent $26 million on "improper and questionable payments to contractors," The Government Accountability Office said Monday."

"That's out of the eventual $92 million the Department of Energy spent on administration of the compensation program, while paying only 31 workers. In late 2004 angry members of Congress yanked the program from Energy and gave it to the Department of Labor."

"The GAO report said the Energy Department paid bills without noticing it was being charged by contractors for first-class travel, unqualified workers and furniture and equipment, the audit said."

Members of Congress who have championed sick workers were furious at the GAO's findings."

"What we see in this report is nothing short of a fleecing of taxpayers' money," said Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky."

"It's outrageous to see contractors line their pockets while Cold War veterans get stuck with absolutely nothing," said Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa."

"In 2000, Congress approved compensation and medical care for thousands of nuclear weapons workers nationwide who were sickened by radiation and toxic chemicals, including many at the now-closed Rocky Flats plant outside Denver."

"Congress gave half the program to the Department of Energy and half to the Department of Labor, with each in charge of compensating certain illnesses. Contractors were hired to review medical and exposure records to decide whether workers were sufficiently contaminated to cause their illnesses."

"But thousands of sick workers have been unable to collect. They say once-secret records of toxic exposure are turning out to be missing or wrong."

"Now it turns out that some of the people reviewing their applications were unqualified, the audit said. It covered only the former Energy side of the program."

"The GAO found at least seven analysts who didn't have the required college degree and five years' experience in health, physical sciences or environmental studies. A manager for the contractor, Westwood Group Inc., did not even know they were supposed to have such qualifications under the contract, the GAO said."

"A medical records technician did not have the required experience, the audit said. "Graphics Illustrators," billed to the government at $52 an hour, actually arranged travel. "Systems engineers" had three years or less of general computer work. Three managers were billed at $205 an hour, nearly twice the allowed amount, the GAO said."

"More than $15 million was billed for workers whose job descriptions didn't even list required experience, so GAO could not tell if they were qualified."

"About $2 million in subcontracted labor was unsupported by documentation. Two contractors, Westwood and Science & Engineering Associates, marked up their charges by $4 million not allowed under their contracts, according to the audit."

"The GAO found particular problems in Westwood's billing for physicians who decided whether whether workers would qualify for aid."

"Energy paid contractor charges for per-diem for out-of-town personnel for weeks at a time when time records we reviewed showed they were not working," the report said."

"Some doctors billed for 19-hour days and 80-hour weeks, and were not questioned. Westwood filed duplicate bills, and charged the government for fringe benefits for people who didn't receive any, the audit said."

"A manager from Energy told the GAO it did not require supporting documentation from Westwood because it would have been "too voluminous," the report said."

"The DOE spent more than $700,000 on furniture just as Congress was moving to pull the program from the agency -- and $72,000 more to store it after it proved unneeded."

"All of this comes on top of an inspector general audit last year that uncovered numerous overcharges from Science & Engineering Associates. For example, it billed Energy $72,000 a year for a mail room clerk, that audit found."

"In its response to the GAO, Energy denied having responsibility for monitoring the contract, saying it had subcontracted the entire program to a computer center run by the Navy in New Orleans.""

"GAO disagreed, and severly criticized both DOE and the Navy agency for failing to check whether the contractors provided the services in their bills."

"Accounting was so slack that Energy underpaid the Navy agency $1.7 million and neither caught the error, the report said."

"Meanwhile, the Navy audited work by Science & Engineering Associates on other contracts. The company denied wrongdoing, but settled claims of overbilling with the Justice Department last winter by paying back $9.5 million."

"Energy officials told the GAO they question whether any of the doubtful payents could be recovered from Science & Engineering Associates because the Justic Deartment promised in the other case that it had no further claims."

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In my of looking at things, this stinks to high heaven and is enough to gag a maggot.

Seems as if our country has a bunch of incomptetent, nincompoops milling around or dragging their feet and sometimes both, while ill nuclear workers are dying.

There is no way a person ill, doomed to an early death can be compensated adequately, but at least his medical bills, medical services, house payments and support of his loved ones should be covered without question. Many of these cases are people ill with exactly the same ailments that other workers are being compensated for. Yet there is some question by the aforesaid incompetents as to whether the victims are qualified.

Yeah, right, who if any involved are unqualified ? ? ? The workers are aptly qualified, they are ill, so who does that leave to blame ?

And to think about it, it is not the money wasted, but the fact that the ill workers have had no relief or help . . . . . . . . YET. Other than the 31 ? ? ?

Of course our economy is top notch, as foreclosures on homeowners increase by leaps and bounds and other things indicate otherwise. So in the matter of sick Rocky Flats former-employees, the government's doing it and IT FOLLOWS . . . . . . . . . . .

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