Contractors Resist US Disclosure Effort

Make sure to read the article from Boston.com here:

A published article in Boston.com highlights the ongoing backlash of Federal contractors heightened opposition to disclosure of their shoddy and fraudulent work practices.

According to Boston.com:

“The controversy highlights the extent to which efforts to make the government more transparent often garner bipartisan support but then stall in the face of powerful interests seeking to limit public disclosure.”

The Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System is a secret database that is not available to the public. Since 2008 contractors have been required to submit information to the database that includes information about court findings and contract failures.

Senator Bernard Sanders of Vermont is extremely vocal in his support of transparency surrounding past and present fraudulent and criminal practices on the part of Federal contractors:

according to Sanders from Boston.com

“We hand out over $500 billion a year to federal contractors, many of which have well-established histories of systemic illegal, fraudulent, and incompetent behavior,’’ Sanders said in a statement. “We cannot let these corporations continue to rip off American taxpayers. I strongly expect that this new public awareness will go a long way toward putting an end to handing out taxpayer-financed contracts to corporations with a history of fraud.’’

Sanders website is here:

If my perfunctory research is correct, the US has been trying to disclose these corrupt contractors through a public database since 2005 and for some reason it has stalled.  I wonder if big business will once again rule and keep their dirty laundry secret from the American taxpayer who supports their greed.

Link to the FAPIIS Website:

Filed under: Contractors, FAPIIS, Job Corps, Job Corps Centers, Newspaper Reports, politics, transparency, Boston.com, corrupt contractor, FAPIIS, fedeeral contractor, Federal Awadee Performance and Integrity Information System, Federal Contractors, Senator Bernard Sanders

New Government Contractor Integrity Data Base Shielded from the Public’s Eye

The Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity System (FAPIIS) is a new one-stop, online data base of Federal contractors who have been disqualified from procuring Government contracts. It also contains information about contracting officers determinations of non-responsibility, records of contract determinations of default or fraud, and defective pricing determinations and agreements that resolved a contractor suspension or disbarment.

There is a problem however, the information contained in the data base is only available to members of Congress, Federal officials and contractors.

The Sunlight Foundation comments on this newly revealed transparency anomaly in their blog “The Data Mine”.

Please read the story here:

Filed under: FAPIIS, Sunlight Foundation, transparency, FAPIIS, Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity System, Federal contractor, Sunlight Foundation, The Data Mine

The Department of Labor and Open Government

Recently the Department of Labor’s website “Open DOL Share Your Ideas” solicited suggestions from readers on how the DOL might become more transparent and open in its operations.  The DOL has published its preliminary conclusions from that website and the following are the top three areas of reader’s focus:

Creating stronger policies to protect the right of DOL scientists to speak with the public and the media;

Providing live webcasts of all meetings for proposed rule making and regulations where the public comment should take place; and

Increasing awareness of the platform itself.

In total, the DOL received 136 suggestions from readers (perhaps increasing awareness of the platform might be the first place to begin for this project.)

Another interesting result from “Open Government” is the creation of DOL’s “Online Enforcement Data Base” which, among other things, is supposed to be publishing the results of various investigations.  I quickly checked the Wage and Hour division’s search button and entered Shriver Job Corps zipcode (01434) to view the findings of  DOL’s recent investigation that caused Shriver to pay a large amount of restitution to its employees for violations of Wage and Hour laws. But, there wasn’t anything listed.  I’m hoping that its absence indicates that all the information has not been updated yet. It would be a glaring omission for the DOL to publish negative reports about all other businesses that violate Wage and Hour laws EXCEPT for the businesses under contract to the DOL. Keep checking back at this website for more information about this project.

Filed under: Job Corps, Shriver Job Corps Center, transparency, wage and hour investigations, Department of Labor Open Government, DOL, Online Enforcement Data Base, Open DOL Share your Ideas, Shriver Job Corps, Wage and Hour division, wage and hour violations

A Letter From a Reader to the Secretary of Labor

-From A Reader to Hilda Solis, Secretary of Labor

“Recently, the U.S. Department of Labor sought ideas from the public regarding an Open Government plan. One of the input topics was: accountability, transparency and making information available in a timely and accessible manner. An idea was submitted that addressed the on-going fraud in the Job Corps program and provided suggestions for eliminating most of it. This idea is not new. The U.S. Congress has been aware of allegations regarding financial and student performance fraud on the part of contractors for many years, but other than conduct OIG audits periodically, Congress has largely chosen to ignore the problem. 

Filed under: Contractors, Fraud, Job Corps, number manipulation, OIG Reports, Reader's Comments, transparency, Hilda Solis, Job Corps contractor fraud, Job Corps contractors, Job Corps manipulation of data, OIG audits, transparency, U.S. Department of Labor