Posted on 10/31/2013 7:50:35 AM PDT by Whenifhow
The CEO of Serco, a British-based company whose North American division received one of the largest contracts to work on the Obamacare insurance exchanges,[1] resigned Friday amid allegations that the company had defrauded the British government of millions of pounds.
Even as myriad other allegations emerged about its work around the globe, Serco spent heavily on lobbying in Washington, D.C., and secured a multi-year contract potentially worth $1.249 billion to handle paper applications for the Obamacare exchanges. Serco did not respond to e-mail and voice-mail requests for comment.
Public records demonstrate Serco’s concentrated effort to woo the U.S. government. In recent years, it has spent more than a million dollars[2] on lobbying and political activities, including $6,450 donated to President Obama’s election campaign, according to the Sunlight Foundation.[3] This year, as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) was considering proposals for insurance-exchange work, Serco spent $100,000[4] to hire Greenberg Traurig, former home of Jack Abramoff, to lobby regarding the “implementation of [the] Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,” according to January registration papers.[5]
Among the Greenberg Traurig lobbyists working on the Serco account was Mark Hayes,[6] a former Senate health-policy aide.[7] During his time on Capitol Hill, Hayes “was instrumental in the key coverage, financing and delivery system reform provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,” according to his Greenberg Traurig bio, and “acted as lead Republican staff negotiator for the ‘Group of Six’ health-care reform negotiations.”[8] Less than a year after the ACA was signed, Hayes left Capitol Hill to become a lobbyist, representing several health-sector clients.[9]
Earlier this year, Hayes became a central subject of a federal insider-trading investigation.[10] The Washington Post reported that Hayes had sent information on April 1 about a significant Medicare policy change to an analyst at Height Securities. The analyst then “sent out an alert to Height’s hundreds of investor clients — ahead of the administration’s public announcement — and trading in Humana, Aetna, and other health-care stocks immediately soared.”[11] Hayes could not be reached for comment, and it’s unclear whether the investigation is continuing. Papers filed in May, after the incident, stated that Hayes was expected to cease lobbying for Serco.[12]
Regardless of the recent federal scrutiny of Hayes, Serco’s big spending seems to have paid off. In early July, the Obama administration awarded Serco a contract worth up to $1.249 billion[13] to manage paper applications for the new insurance exchanges. The company will determine eligibility for tax credits, Medicaid,[14] and exemptions from tax penalties.[15] Privacy concerns have already arisen, because in 2011, a data breach at the U.S. Thrift Savings Plan for federal employees – managed by Serco — jeopardized the Social Security numbers and confidential information of more than 120,000 participants.[16]
Just weeks after the Obama administration announced Serco’s contract award, news broke that Britain’s Serious Fraud Office had opened an investigation into the corporation, which had government contracts to electronically monitor criminals released from prison. An audit discovered that Serco and another company may have been overbilling the government by as much as $80.8 million. As many as one in six criminals whose monitoring was being paid for by the British government were reportedly either dead, back behind bars, no longer under supervision, or no longer living in the U.K.[17]
Furthermore, although U.S. companies that are part of a foreign company are obligated to report any billing wrongdoings abroad, Serco did not give CMS such notice, Reuters reported in July.[18] Nevertheless, the Obama administration defended its decision to award the $1.249 billion contract to Serco, claiming it was a “highly skilled company” with “a proven track record in providing cost-effective services to numerous other federal agencies.”[19]
Shortly after that, more red flags went up. In August, the London police opened an investigation into Serco after allegations that it had falsified documents for another government contract for transporting defendants from confinement to court. Serco had repeatedly delivered prisoners late, and after it received a warning last summer, evidence emerged of “potentially fraudulent behavior,” according to the U.K. secretary of state for justice.[20] Shortly thereafter, Serco said it had “identified misreporting” among its employees.[21]
Even so, in late September, the U.S. amended Serco’s CMS contract, adding $87 million in value,[22], though it’s unclear what work that will entail or whether it will add to the $1.249 billion potential worth of the original contract. As of this writing, contract officers and media spokespeople from CMS had not responded to National Review Online’s requests for more details.
Serco’s big role in the Obamacare exchanges is even more disturbing in the light of its record with the British National Health Service.
In 2006, Serco won a contract to provide out-of-hours physician service in Cornwall, England. Guardian reporter Felicity Lawrence reported that the quality of service promptly declined, as Serco cut costs by cutting staff. Reportedly, there were sometimes more than 90 patients at a time waiting on the telephone help line. And according to whistleblowers, Serco on at least one occasion, had only one general practitioner available overnight for the entire county.[23] Furthermore, “in 2010,” Lawrence wrote, “a Cornish boy, Ethan Kerrigan, six, died as a result of a burst appendix when the Serco out-of-hours service advised putting him to bed rather than sending a [general practitioner] to examine him.”[24]
They didn’t do anything to check out these companies? or did they purposely look for bad apples to give contracts to?
2:50 Minutes - Lou Dobbs interviews Jillian Kay Melchior
ObamaCare Contractor Under Investigation For Fraud In U.K.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_ha5qnxHpo
4:32 Minutes - Greta interviews Jillian Kay Melchior
Inside ObamaCare Contractor’s Checkered Past
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qmK5SsK6AE
1:16 Minutes – Greta Commentary
Greta: The ObamaCare Serco Deal Smells Rotten
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAefvWqWN6I
Follow up article
Insurance Exchange Contractor Got Increased Award Despite Scandals
Great question! Getting the feeling the goal was to defraud Americans by choosing the absolute worst possible contractors.
I think so too. There is no they awarded these no-bid contracts to the worst possible companies by accident.
How come foreign companies are allowed to donate to political campaigns?
At this point, if we were in France, Germany, South Korea or
Spain....there’d be a prosecution team on the case, and everyone associated with this guy....politically....would have to resign or face some serious consequences.
Fortunately, we don’t live in an accountable state, and no journalism organization in the United States is capable of true investigative journalism anymore....with the exception of the Cartoon Channel and the History Channel.
There are so many American only companies that could have done this work. I could have started a company on a whim with a contact like that and done better.
However, I am glad they used foreigners and it tanked, but that was the underlying plan all along.
How come foreign companies are allowed to donate to political campaigns?
********
Don’t know the rules that well, but recall this came up in the 2008 campaign. Others may have a better response.
Easy. They set up American Subsidiaries. . . who now CAN donate and lobby. . .
Yep. This would be a huge scandal with resignations all over the place. There would be suicides in Japan or something.
We live in a kakistocracy where we reward failure and incompetence
I bet the only subset of available companies they considered was comprised of those who had been politically active and politically friendly. That pretty much eliminates a merit/competence based award.
bump
Very possible
and by possible I meant
HIGHLY LIKELY
So, they form a American branch of a Canadian Company (CGI) and place Michelle’s college classmate in key position... even though the company already was canned in CANADA for raping Canada of hundreds of millions of dollars in another scandal plagued website project (maybe even two scandals). The Canadian scandal involves Valerie Jarrett’s daughter and her Canadian husband’s political family.
Then, they hire another foreign company Serco who also screwed the UK out of millions and hire them anyway.... Bet a million dollars somebody from the Soros/Obama Criminal Family of Scum is responsible for that too.
THIS IS AN INTERNATIONAL FRAUD SCHEME TO STEAL BILLIONS FROM AROUND THE FREE WORLD AND CREATE VOTER FRAUD EVERY COUNTRY THEY CAN TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD. NWO ISN’T A CONSPIRACY AND OUR LITTLE JUG EARED MAN CHILD IS ON IT THE WHOLE DEAL. OUR LEFTY’S ARE JOINING OTHER FOREIGN LEFTY’S AND ARE GOING TO BRING DOWN THE WESTERN WORLD...
TIN FOIL HAT ON...
They undoubtedly purposely looked for crooked companies who would kick some back.
That is what I think.
Ping to post #17
So why was CGI defrauding Canadians and Serco defrauding Britain? And now Americans……Many stories coming out about CGI being incompetent (see link below), yet CGI is connected to Brennan, NSA & CIA and the video of Benghazi fame as well as the passport break-in in 2008.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3085421/posts?page=398#398
It is a plan for wealth redistribution!!! On a world stage.
They can redistribute the wealth very easily in this way! Why wait for the sucker Americans to enter Obamacare when they can get their money up front for getting paid twice or 3 times for doing the same work. Meanwhile those sucker Americans who can’t register for Obamacare will get fined and pay taxes for not having insurance.
Can you hear them laughing?
The administration is not the least bit concerned (in my book) about the failed rollout of the Obamacare website.
Democrats are NOT nearly as upset about the failed website as they were about the possible defunding of Obamacare...hmm
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