“It’s been 18 months since the Department of Health and Human Services accused four executives in its Program Support Center of wrongdoing.”
“Since April 2019, HHS decided Al Sample, the well-respected head of PSC; Bill McCabe, the chief financial officer and director of the Financial Management and Procurement Portfolio; Patrick Joy, the head of PSC’s contracting activity; and Donald Hadrick, the chief supervisory contracting officer, should remain stuck at home, collecting their pay and waiting for a decision by investigators.”
“HHS accused the four executives of alleged contracting problems, including a ‘missing’ $40 million–which was later determined by the Office of Management Budget not to be ‘missing,’ shortcomings with how PSC handled classified information through the DD-254 form process, and an overall lack of policies and procedures and legal authority to conduct assisted acquisitions for other agencies. HHS escorted the four executives out the building two springs ago.”
“In November 2020, at least three of them seem no closer to getting their situation resolved…”
Contractors still waiting to be paid
“As the case made by Rowell and James Simpson, the deputy assistant secretary for acquisitions, fell apart, HHS now is reaching for any reason for why it wasted more than $650,000 a year in salaries paid to the four executives to sit home and wait, while they also put more than $1 billion in federal contracts at risk after PSC stopped offering assisted acquisition services in 2019. The agency continues to this day to delay payment to contractors, causing additional pain on top of the current problems caused by the pandemic.”
“Industry sources say contractors still are waiting to get paid as PSC plays a ‘hide the document’ game where companies provide requested documents only to have HHS legal teams ask for the same documents over and over again. Then when firms do get paid, the department asks them to accept 90 cents on the dollar in some circumstances. One reason for this may be the amount of penalties HHS has been forced to pay under the Prompt Payment Act, which sources previously told Federal News Network ranged from $4,000 to $84,000.”
“HHS’s actions of the last 15 months are leaving government officials, industry and now at least two lawmakers deeply troubled by the management decisions made by its executives…” Read the full article here.
Source: Is HHS seeking a scapegoat for decision to cut back Program Support Center services? – By Jason Miller, November 3, 2020. Federal News Network.
