I find it hard to believe that now in the United States we need to utilize Indian companies with Indian staff to do the IT and Network for our state governments. Don't we have one of the best educational systems in the world? Don't we have high unemployment where we need to employ Americans?
Well, there is a company called Protech Solutions, Inc. ( http://www.protechsolutions.com/ ) that primarily does IT and Network for Child Enforcement Software. The company's phone number is 877-776-6273. The company is a subsidiary of Protech out of India. In the United States, the Indian CEO of the company is a US Citizen. However, the percentage of the staff are people on VISA's from India.
This company does not hire technical people from the United States. They only hire low level managers and low level functional tester's (Business Analysts) from the United States! If they do hire a Senior Manager, that person doesn't last long at Protech. Usually a few months. An example is listed further down this article.
How do they get VISA's for a company of between 250 and 350 persons in the United States?
How are they allowed to discriminate against US Citizens in the United States which should have first preference for a job - especially on contracts from the State of Arkansas and New Jersey?
Does the United States not have qualified individuals to do this work?This company, Protech Solutions, has had for 7 years a contract to do the IT and Network work for the Arkansas Office of Child Support Enforcement. They are currently maintaining the existing software, and for some reason, the State of Arkansas employees that are running the program, are utilizing a maintenance contract to do development work. Protech is in the process of redesigning the systems into a .NET framework. (Usually, development work like this is not allowed to be done under a maintenance contract.)
This Maintenance Contract is worth to Protech Solutions, Inc. approximately $9.6 Million Dollars yearly. That covers approximately 42 people working on the project per year which is billed to the State of Arkansas at $111 per hour. This project with 42 people has approximately 76% staff from India which most of them are on some type of VISA.
The State of Arkansas is paying Indian staff to develop the expertise to do software and network for Child Support nation wide. This is currently being done in Arkansas, Michigan, Massachusetts, Maine, and now the largest contract is for New Jersey by Protech Solutions.
In fact, on the State of Arkansas contract, it has been known to the state personnel that a major mistake was made by Protech Staff in the Network for the Department of Finance for Arkansas (DFA). A Protech employee, which went home to India back in May 2008, was denied re-entry into the United States due to VISA issues. The Protech staff forgot to delete his VPN (Virtual Private Network) connection and delete his access accounts. This Indian citizen had access to the entire State of Arkansas people in the Child Support database personal information, including Social Security numbers, names, addresses, etc. Just a great way to encourage identity theft. If this was a State of Arkansas person that made this mistake, they would probably have had their employment terminated. In this case, for Protech, the State of Arkansas staff over the Protech contract swept it under the rug and set a new policy that anyone that leaves the country for a day will have their accounts locked from access until their return. Good idea - months too late.
The State of Arkansas requested a Sr. Project Manager be hired from the USA that speaks English as a first language to help straighten out the contract and have this contract structured more like other contracts for the government. The person they hired was Herbert Brake (coming from HP/Merrill Lynch) with over 16 years of experience in Project and Program Management. Their job was to make the customer (the State of Arkansas) happy and structure the project where all work was documented and regulated with some tool such as Microsoft Project or @Task. This person worked from September 1 through October 27, 2008 and was terminated by Protech. No reason was given, yet the State of Arkansas was pleased with the work Mr. Brake was doing for the project and all work was being done on time. The work prior was managed by Protech utilizing "by the Seat of their Pants" system according to Mr. Stan King of the State of Arkansas. Mr. Brake was doing a great job according to the State, however due to problems between him and one of the heads of Protech, Nagaraj Garamila, and some comments made by Mr. Garamila concerning "Stupid Americans", Mr. Brake's employment was terminated when he requested to file a complaint of harassment/discrimination through the Protech HR office. He was not allowed to file a complaint with the Protech HR department.
Rumors has it that Mr. Brake has filed a complaint with the EEOC and has retained legal counsel.
The Protech contract for the State of Arkansas is up for renewal next June. Will Protech once again get the contract where most of the money flows through foreign employees out of Arkansas and out of the United States?
I am not sure of the value of the New Jersey contract, but I do know that Protech Solutions is designing the software from the ground up, and starting implementation of the software in multiple counties in New Jersey. Rumors at Protech have the project valued at somewhere over $700 Million initially and then the normal maintenance contract. Does anyone know the exact figures? Does anyone know why New Jersey picked a primarily foreign company to do this work?
Where does this end? When do we decide to take back America to the Americans. I have nothing against foreigners, but how can America remain a world power when we now import everything, including technology staff?