Failing to pay those who are hired to protect us is not efficiency.House Subcommittee Discovers Lack Of Oversight For Contract Guard CompaniesBy Cliff Montgomery – June 26st, 2007House subcommittee Members voiced deep concerns during a hearing last week that financial mismanagement at contract guard companies may risk the safety of federal facilities.The House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management held the hearing after it was discovered that hundreds of contract security guards protecting federal buildings in the Washington, D.C. area had been denied pay for six weeks, and had not received due benefits for up to a year.These guards work for Systems Training and Research Technologies (STARTECH), a private security guard company contracted by the Federal Protective Service (FPS).The idea is that private companies will surely save money for the American taxpayer, since they are supposedly more efficient. Failing to pay those who are hired to protect us may indeed be an inspired way to save a few dollars, but it’s hardly efficient.Most of the guards apparently continued to work despite lack of payment; but subcommittee members declared that pressing our luck on such an important issue is not the purpose of private contracting.”These people are there for a purpose, to protect us from terrorists and criminals,” pointed out Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), chairwoman of the House subcommittee.”If they’re not there, we’re not protected. If they’re not paid, we have no assurance that we’re protected,” added Norton.FPS did perform its federal duties of ensuring that guards were at their appointed posts and maintained valid, up-to-date documentation; it just failed to make sure those same guards would be well-paid for all the bother.FPS Director Gary Schenkel worked up his best sweeping generalization before the committee, claiming that while the contracts state the guards must receive wages, the timing of those payments is always in the hands of the guards themselves and the contracting company…even when it’s clear that the company is making absolutely no attempt to pay the guards their needed regular wages.Norton had a quick retort for such nonsense.”This was a serious security failing at the top,” Norton declared, replying to Schenkel.”You behaved like a government bureaucrat when you should act like a police chief whose post is left uncovered,” she added.Ashley Lewis, who heads the Office of Acquisition Policy and Oversight at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau–FPS’ parent agency–virtuously said that her bureau hopes to increase oversight in determining the financial distress…of the contractors.”We’re considering putting requirements in our contracts to notify us if corporate officers change or if companies have missed payroll or if there is any other indication of instability,” Lewis declared after the hearing.The Labor Department has frozen $1.8 million the government owes to STARTECH for recent invoices, and will distribute the funds to former STARTECH employees for wages still owed.”We don’t want that money to go to the corporation and disappear,” Lewis said.Weldon Waites, vice president of business development for STARTECH, was convicted of 29 felony counts of conspiracy, money laundering and bank fraud and served nearly five years in jail before becoming STARTECH’s insurance adviser.So why would the U.S. Government openly work with a convicted felon? FPS officials insist they were unaware of Waites’ criminal background during the contracting process.Why? Because the ownership of the corporation was officially listed under the name of Sharon Waites, Weldon’s wife–even though it’s Weldon Waites’ family which owns 75 percent of STARTECH stock.Ann Marie Messner, formerly the chief operating officer and general manager of STARTECH, put the blame for the entire fiasco on Waites.”My theory of the demise of STARTECH is in stark contrast to any attempt to blame late payments from [the U.S. Government] or anyone else,” Messner told the committee.”It is my considered opinion that STARTECH died at the hands of its controlling owner, Mr. Weldon Waites. Weldon Waites sacrificed his company, his employees and your security on the altar of his greed,” added Messner.Schenkel, Lewis and DHS Inspector General Richard Skinner agreed with House panel members on one thing: The U.S. Government must employ better oversight of contract guard companies in the future.”Even if Waites is directly responsible, the government is primarily responsible,” said Norton.Like what you’re reading so far? Then why not order a full year (52 issues) of thee-newsletter for only $15? A major article covering an story not being told in the Corporate Press will be delivered to your email every Monday morning for a full year, for less than 30 cents an issue. Order Now!
How Necessary Laws Are Killed These Days
Lawmakers generally only fight to protect the things they care about – and all too often, that just doesn’t include the lives of most of their constituents.
