“A top Trump administration health official violated federal contracting rules by steering millions of taxpayer dollars in contracts that ultimately benefited GOP-aligned communications consultants, according to an inspector general report released Thursday.”
“The contracts, which were directed by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services chief Seema Verma, were only halted after a POLITICO investigation raised questions about their legality and the agency had paid out more than $5 million to the contractors.”
“The 70-page HHS inspector general report — the result of a 15-month audit — calls on HHS and CMS to take nine separate actions to address the ‘significant deficiencies’ that it identified. Those actions include conducting a review of all the department’s contracts, and making a closer examination of whether CMS overpaid several of its contractors.”
“The report paints a detailed portrait of Verma’s use of federal contracts to install allies who managed high-priority projects and exercised broad authority within CMS, while circumventing the agency’s career officials and funding projects that ethics experts have said wasted taxpayers’ money.”
“’CMS improperly administered the contracts and created improper employer-employee relationships between CMS and the contractors,’ the inspector general wrote, detailing how Verma leaned on her hand-picked consultants rather than hundreds of civil servants in her communications department. ‘CMS’s administration of these contracts put the Government at increased risk for waste and abuse…’” Read the full article here.
Source: Inspector general: Medicare chief broke rules on her publicity contracts – By Dan Diamond and Adam Cancryn, July 16, 2020. POLITICO.
