Is Bush’s Move to Privatize Part of Walter Reed Disaster?

by Mike Hall, Mar 5, 2007

Did the Bush administration’s move to privatize support services at Walter Reed Army Medical Center play a role in the disgraceful and deplorable conditions wounded veterans have been forced to endure during their convalescence?

That’s the question leaders of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee want the Army to answer. But according to independent newspaper, Army Times, the Army initially refused to allow Gen. George W. Weightman to appear before the committee, but reversed course and allowed him to testify at today’s hearing. Weightman was relieved last week as Walter Reed commander in the wake of the scandal.

In the letter from the committee to Weightman, committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Rep. John Tierney (D-Mass.), chairman of the National Security and Foreign Affairs Subcommittee, say they want Weightman to testify about a memo that links the privatization effort to deteriorating conditions.

The memorandum, which we understand was written in September of 2006, describes how the Army’s decision to privatize support services at Walter Reed Army Medical center was causing an exodus of “highly skilled and experienced personnel.” As a result, according to the memorandum, “[Walter Reed] Base Operations and patient care services are at risk of mission failure.”

Some 350 workers, AFGE members, made up the support service staff when the move to privatize the support services began in 2000. They included maintenance, repair and other physical plant workers. Under the government’s privatization policies, employees can compete against private contractors seeking the work. In September 2004, an in-house employee team was awarded the contract with a bid that was $7 million below that of the contractor.

But the company, IAP World Services appealed and in January 2006 was awarded the $120 million, five-year contract. IAP is run by former senior Halliburton official Al Neffgen. AFGE then launched a congressional fight against the award. In June, the House approved an amendment to a Defense Department appropriations bill that blocked the award, but the measure failed in the Senate.

Waxman and Tierney note that IAP

…is one of the companies that experienced problems delivering ice during the response to Hurricane Katrina. The company is led by Al Neffgen, a former senior Halliburton official who testified before our committee in July 2004 in defense of Halliburton’s exorbitant charges for fuel delivery and troop support. .

According to the committee’s letter, after the contract was awarded to IAP, the facilities management and support workforce has drastically shrunk.

By Feb. 3, 2007, the day before IAP took over facilities management, the number of support personnel has dropped to under 60. Yet instead of hiring additional personnel, IAP apparently replaced the remaining 60 federal employees with only 50 IAP personnel.

The conditions that have been described at Walter Reed are disgraceful. Part of our mission on the Oversight Committee is investigating what led to the breakdown in services. It would be reprehensible if the deplorable conditions were caused or aggravated by an ideological commitment to privatize government services regardless to the costs to taxpayers and consequences for wounded soldiers.

For more on the problems at Walter Reed, check out Shirah’s diary on Unbossed and today’s Center for American Progress’ Progress Report.    

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