Cashing In On Disabled Veterans

[babylonsister]

http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/15364

Cashing In On Disabled Veterans
By: dakine01 Thursday November 19, 2009 6:19 am


I. Am. Pissed.

I am a veteran of the United States Air Force, serving from 12/76 to 9/82, reaching the rank of Staff Sergeant (E5). I have copies of my DD214 (Discharge papers) available if anyone wants to check.

So why am I telling y’all this?

In today’s (November 19, 2009) NY Times, there’s a story headlined:

Review Finds Fraud In Contracts Awarded In Disabled Veterans’ Program

Now it’s bad enough that we are creating more disabled veterans every day with the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan and more homeless veterans everyday (both women and men).

No, that’s not enough. Now we have the crooks using programs that are supposed to help veterans, specifically disabled veterans, to rip off both the veterans and the taxpayers.

From the NY Times article:

A program intended to help disabled veterans win government business awarded at least $100 million in contracts to firms that were either ineligible or committed fraud to obtain the work, a federal review has found.

In one case, a Nevada firm won a $7.5 million contract from the Federal Emergency Management Agency even though its majority owner was not a disabled veteran, the review by the Government Accountability Office said.

People serve in the military for large varieties of reasons, simple patriotism to economic need and everything in between. We talk about supporting the troops. We talk about caring for those wounded in our service. Sometimes we even try, through our elected representatives and senators, to provide support for these folks who are injured while carrying out the policies of the folks in Washington. Yet we allow the crooks to come in and subvert programs of this nature without penalty (again from the article):

The accountability office recommended that Congress enact rules that punish firms that win contracts through fraud, whether through levying fines, suspending contracts or barring them from receiving future contracts.

Currently, no such penalties are in place, the report said. In one case cited, a company based in Nevada fraudulently described itself as owned by a disabled veteran so it could compete for contracts to maintain trailers for hurricane victims in Louisiana. Yet after the fraud was uncovered, the company was not required to repay $7.5 million it had received, and has not been prohibited from receiving future contracts.

We require the sacrifice of our soldiers. We should fully and completely punish the malefactors.

(Don’t even get me started on the crooks who pose as veterans).

[C_Lawyer09]

1. Something else I've noticed

I don't have any stats to validate my hypothesis, but through my recent experiences through the Army Career and Alumni Program (ACAP) it seems that many of these websites that have been set up, supposedly toward helping vets find jobs are much more bark than bite. Many of the listings don't disappear, the employers are uncontactable, and/or they require several advanced skill sets for jobs that are entry-mid level. Any success that myself or friends have had is through job fairs and/or any other face to face venue. I definitely realize the effects of this economy are hitting everybody hard, vets and non-vets, but I'm getting the sneaking suspicion that many of these organizations that have popped up recently have a larger priority than the hiring of qualified veterans. Lastly, it's sad that many vets whom get out hoping to spend more time with family, decompress, live in their hometown, and other reasons, often are forced back into the system they left working for contractors, because that is what is available. The dissapearance of our previously strong manufacturing based economy is a real Mo Fo. Lastly, the sad fact is, most of these state "help programs" are set up and administered in such a way, that there is no way to guage success, nor is there any accountability. I'm convinced they are more or less window dressing to provide political cover for politicians. Whatever do you mean,? I love vets. etc.

[TexasObserver]

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