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Conditions at Walter Reed |
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Written by Bettie J. Reina
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Friday, 30 March 2007 |
Conditions at Walter Reed
Published in Atlantic County Newspaper Group on Friday, March 30, 2007
Click here for link to published letter
Published in Press of Atlantic City
Walter Reed isn't Democrats' fault
The March 23 letter, “Democrats and civilians to blame for Walter
Reed,” lays responsibility for the wretched conditions at Walter Reed
Army Medical Center on civil-service rules that the writer says protect
poor employees. However, civil-service rules and unions protect good
employees from being dismissed without cause.
When President Bush took office, he mandated the competitive
outsourcing of thousands of federal jobs; a way to get around
civil-service rules and provide money-making opportunities for
associates. In 2003, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld elected
to outsource thousands more non-military support jobs.
Also in 2003, Walter Reed was selected for outsourcing of maintenance,
which according to the General Accounting Office involved three years
of bureaucracy, squabbling, rebidding and appealing before a contract
was finally signed in November 2006. During that time, needed repairs
were not done and non-medical staff went from almost 300 to fewer than
50, all while wounded soldiers were returning from Afghanistan and
Iraq.
The company awarded the five-year, $120 billion contract, IAP Worldwide
Services Inc., is run by former executives of Kellogg, Brown and Root,
a spinoff of Vice President Dick Cheney's old company, Halliburton Inc.
Given the above facts and Republican control of Washington during those
years, how can any unbiased observer justify blaming this on Democrats
and civil-service employees?
BETTIE J. REINA
Milmay |
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 08 September 2007 )
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