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Lax oversight of VA project caused $17.7M overrun, construction collapse

The Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs issued a report that found both a contractor and VA hospital officials demonstrated “shoddy planning” and poor oversight of an $8.7 million generator project that is $17.5 million over budget.

The VA in June 2014 hired Florida-based BCI Construction for $8.7 million to install a generator system and accompanying structure to house the unit at the Jack C. Montgomery VA Medical Center in Muskogee, Oklahoma. According to the inspector general, the VA did not submit an excavation plan for approval before beginning work. Subsequently, a hillside and parking lot collapsed, and the damage will cost $17.5 million to fix.

Photos show noticeable deterioration of parking lot before collapse. (photos by VA Medical Center employee)

In addition to supervisory and procedural errors, the inspector general also found that BCI’s worksite to be unsafe. Safety inspections were sporadic, and 49 safety violations were never reported to the government contracting officer, which is a violation of VA policy.

The inspector general recommended requiring contracting officer representatives are qualified and follow VA regulations and mandating that employees follow safety inspection guidelines. The current Muskogee hospital director, hired after the collapse, said the facility has implemented the recommendations.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.constructiondive.com/news/report-lax-oversight-of-va-project-caused-177m-overrun-construction-col/520242/

Read the article in The Oklahoman newspaper on this subject at: http://newsok.com/article/5588662/construction-collapse-at-muskogee-va-hospital-will-cost-17.5-million-to-repair-and-was-the-result-of-poor-planning-federal-report-finds

Read the VA’s full OIG report at: https://www.oversight.gov/sites/default/files/oig-reports/VAOIG-15-04678-114.pdf

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The Pentagon is almost ready for its close-up

The Pentagon will spend the next several months gearing up for a mission so complicated that many officials doubt it can be pulled off, an undertaking so immense that the military hasn’t once dared to try it before.

No, this isn’t a story about deploying a fancy new weapon, or unveiling a new aircraft, or launching a military operation of any kind: The Department of Defense is preparing for its first-ever audit.

That the nation’s most sprawling and expensive bureaucracy—and the world’s largest employer—has yet to undergo a formal, legally mandated review of its finances is a source of embarrassment among budget watchdogs, and it has become a preoccupation for members of Congress intent on demonstrating their fiscal prudence even as they appropriate more than $600 billion annually to the Pentagon. “Like Waiting for Godot,” one Democratic senator, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, quipped about the absent audit at a recent hearing.

The lack of formal accountability has left unanswered basic questions about how the military spends taxpayer money, like the precise number of employees and contractors its various branches have hired. Cost overruns have become legendary, none more so than the F-35 fighter-jet program that has drawn the ire of President Trump. And partial reports suggest that the department has misspent or not accounted for anywhere from hundreds of billions to several trillion dollars.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/defense/2017/05/pentagon-almost-ready-its-close-/137925/

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IG finds GSA’s 18F disregarded policies, planned poorly

The long-rumored scathing report on the General Services Administration’s 18F organization didn’t materialize as some hoped. But what auditors did find is an office that is acting like a private sector startup by spending money it doesn’t have and hiring at a rate that is only seen from emerging tech companies.

What Is 18F.The agency’s inspector general also found 18F chose not to listen to advice of GSA’s chief financial officer and the commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service about following the law to pay back its initial funding, and did so with a smug attitude that many in and out of government have said is emblematic of the digital services movement across government.

“18F’s cumulative net loss from its launch in fiscal 2014 through the third quarter of fiscal 2016 is $31.66 million. We found that 18F’s plan to achieve full cost recovery has been unsuccessful because of inaccurate financial projections, increased staffing levels and the amount of staff time spent on non-billable activities,” the IG stated in its report issued Oct. 24. “18F managers have repeatedly overestimated revenue and, with the support of the administrator’s office, hired more staff than revenue could support. In addition, 18F staff spent over half of their time on non-billable projects. 18F managers have recently revised their projected breakeven date from 2019 to 2020.”

One example is staff time totaling 727 hours on a logo change. The old logo was a blue square with 18F in the lower-right-hand corner.
One criticism brought by the IG’s office was the amount of staff time — 727 hours — devoted to a logo change. The old logo was a blue square with 18F in the lower-right-hand corner. The new logo is a black square with 18F centered and in a different font.

Keep reading this article at: http://federalnewsradio.com/agency-oversight/2016/10/ig-finds-gsas-18f-disregarded-policies-planned-poorly/

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House panel subpoenas VA for artwork spending, documents on delayed $1 billion construction project

A House panel voted last Wednesday to subpoena the Veterans Affairs Department for information on cost-overruns related to a $1 billion hospital construction project, as well as spending on artwork in VA facilities.

VA-LogoThe Veterans’ Affairs Committee is seeking all unredacted evidentiary documents related to the construction of a new VA medical center in Aurora, Colo., which started in 2011 and was supposed to cost roughly $600 million. The project still isn’t done, and so far has cost more than $1 billion. The department already has provided the committee with “thousands of pages of documents,” including an unredacted copy of the VA’s final report from the Administrative Investigation Board, wrote Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson in an Aug. 19 letter to Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., who represents the district that is home to the construction project.

But many lawmakers, including Coffman and committee Chairman Jeff Miller, R-Fla., do not believe the VA has been sufficiently transparent.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/management/2016/09/house-panel-subpoenas-va-artwork-spending-documents-delayed-1-billion-construction-project/131335/

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White House would curb contracting waste with innovation labs

The Obama administration is rolling out a new weapon in the perennial battle against contract cost overruns and agencies taking delivery of instantly obsolete software.

White HouseAcquisition Innovation Labs, as announced last Wednesday by U.S. Chief Acquisition Officer Anne Rung, will “provide a pathway to test and implement more innovative approaches to acquisitions, with a strong emphasis on improving IT investments.”

Under the plan, each agency will appoint acquisition innovation advocates (AIAs) to promote testing of new ideas and better ways of executing existing practices in their agencies through managed risk-taking. Agencies will set up innovation labs “to promote meaningful collaboration through an integrated product team,” Rung said, and will participate in a new AIA Council to maximize collaboration across the government as well as share best practices and lessons learned.

Keep reading this article at: http://m.govexec.com/contracting/2016/03/white-house-would-curb-contracting-waste-innovation-labs/126578

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