Today IAP Worldwide Services finally issued a press release regarding the allegations, which first became public last Friday, that its A-76 privatization contract at Walter Reed Army Medical Center had contributed to the abysmal conditions that wounded soldiers were enduring. The fact that it took a mere 5 days to comment is surely some indication of how seriously the corporation takes its responsibilities at WRAMC.
The statement itself, aahhh, errm...leaves a little to be desired in the categories of empathy, honesty, candor.
I'm sure IAP won't mind my calling some more attention to their little press release:
Cape Canaveral, Florida –
As my sister could tell you from first-hand experience, there are few contractors more inept, corrupt, and generally worthless than those who suck at the teat of NASA. Anyway, let's move forward in this press release...
IAP Worldwide Services, Inc., today issued the following progress report following the company’s first month of providing base operations and facility maintenance work at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC).
That's just a tad disingenuous, isn't it? The reason for this press release, surely, is not any need to report to the public about "progress" made at WRAMC. The press release exists because the scadalous debacle of the conditions at the Center has raised an outcry from one corner of the country to another.
IAP’s contract at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center began Feb. 4, 2007. Under the competitively awarded contract,
Hold it right there. The only competition with the IAP contract was between those who wanted to uphold the law, and those (IAP and its supporters) who wanted to ignore the law, bend the law, mangle the law. The truly competitive part of the A-76 contracting review was the initial part in which the federal workers won and IAP lost. The rest of the game was about overturning the competitive result by any means necessary, even after the process extended beyond it's legally sanctioned limit.
I look in vain in this press release for any mention of the attempt by Congress to block the implementation of this corrupt contract. But I digress.
IAP operates and maintains the infrastructure and physical plant at WRAMC.
Sometimes it does, sometimes not so much.
IAP does not provide patient medical care.
No, indeed it does not. IAP is quite busy, thank you, firing staffers at WRAMC and neglecting to maintain facilities, to take on anything like caring for or about patients.
Since beginning work on Feb. 4, 2007, IAP’s personnel and staff have responded with a sense of urgency to address maintenance concerns throughout the WRAMC complex.
Urgency, in this corporation, is telegraphed by firing people.
IAP’s personnel and staff are fully committed to addressing facility maintenance and preservation tasks assigned by the Army.
A full commitment from IAP, as it turned out, extended to paying only so many staffers. No doubt the author of this piece has read last week's letter by Reps. Henry Waxman and John Tierney, which described how IAP fired the 60 remaining federal workers in that division (way down from an original work force of 300) and replaced them with 50 contract workers.
From the first day, IAP has maintained a full complement of employees and subcontractor personnel.
Since IAP gets to determine what a "full complement" is, that is not a particularly remarkable achievement. In fact, I would have termed it a 'truism'. A few months before, the full complement had been 300 workers. Now, by the magic of privatization, it had become 50.
On Feb. 4, 2007, 290 IAP and subcontractor personnel began work. Of those, 100 personnel were assigned to facility maintenance work. On March 5, 2007, 305 personnel were at the job.
Quite a precisely worded statement about exact numbers of workers employed. Perhaps word has in fact reached IAP headquarters, after all, that it is being criticized for nickle-and-diming the WRAMC?
Anyhow, behind the apparent precision, I've got the strongest hunch, lies some awkwardly concealed truths. For example, I wonder whether anything unusual occured in that blank gap between Feb. 4 and March 5, 2007? Anything like the firing of all the remaining federal workers, for instance?
When a requirement for maintenance is identified at any of the WRAMC buildings or facilities, IAP works with the U.S. Army to follow a procedure that ensures that the highest priority facility maintenance items are addressed first.
Aha, 'procedures'. That's got to be an Army thing, they're the ones who have procedures. The Army must be to blame for any 'item' that isn't fixed first. I do have this nagging thought, however: What about the 'item' that doesn't get fixed last?
IAP Worldwide Services is a leading government contractor providing a broad spectrum of services focused on global mission support for the Department of Defense and other U.S. government agencies with a history of support for more than 50 years.
Actually, the company was founded in 1990. But why should facts get in the way of a good press release.
The company specializes in three lines of business: global operations and logistics; facilities management and base operations support; and professional and technical services.
Maybe IAP should add a fourth category: Screwing up IRS records.
From Unbossed