Michael Brady, "Legal Genius", Tells The Tale Of How The Detroit Land Bank Authority Was Created

Once upon a time,

Oh, heck, I will just let Michael Brady, Principal Attorney over the Detroit Land Bank Authority tell the tale of how the nation's largest property fraud scheme was created.

But, then again, this may not be the nation's largest property fraud scheme in history because it started in the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office, so, as to which scheme is the greatest is a point of contention.

Perhaps, they are one in the same.

I guess you are just going to have to watch the video, which is better than any deposition a gal could ever ask for!

SPOLIATAION NOTICE:

You do know I have copy, right?

Michael Brady of the Detroit Land Bank Authority shares how this organization manages vacant properties to eliminate blight in the city of Detroit.

He goes into the detailed history of former Wayne County Prosecutor and Mayor of Detroit, Mike Duggan came up with the plan to take the Wayne County property foreclosure program and warehouse it in the Detroit Land Bank Authority.

This is the part where you can tell he is not from Detroit.

Michael Brady makes clear statements of his understanding on what the Hardest Hit Funds of TARP are to be used and the relationship with the White House Administration.

Michael Brady, also, provides information on how it circumvented the layers of federal, state and local laws in the acquisition of properties.

He also explained that he is working with Chase.

Such a shame the Detroit Land Bank Authority, which was actually recorded in City Council records, that Kwame Kilpatrick was the city catalyst in the formation and Janice Winfrey just took it upon herself to incorporate it.

I never knew the Detroit City Clerk possessed powers of incorporation which trump the State of Michigan, Uniform Commercial Codes, and a whole bunch of other interstate commerce statutes.

See, you learn something new everyday.

I also learned that the Detroit Land Bank Authority can use its own super duper special seals when filing this intergovernemtnal agreement for its creation because it is stamped with something that says "Filed with the Secretary of State".

Now, which Secretary of State that is would be a question, as there is no Great Seal of the State, only Michael Brady, possesses the acumen to answer, as he is a "Legal Genius", (trademark pending) and all.

Tran, et al v. Detroit Land Bank Authority, et al Intergovernmental Agreement by Beverly Tran on Scribd

They never incorporated even though the intergovernmental agreement says the Detroit Land Bank Authority was supposed to be incorporated.

But, of course, Michael Brady knew this because he is a "Legal Genius" (trademark pending).

They never filed with the Wayne County Clerk because there are no BINS or other identifiable reference numbers for records search, as requested by the Wayne County Clerk when attempting to make copy of the file.

But, of course, Michael Brady knew this because he is a "Legal Genius" (trademark pending).

So, Michael Brady tried to make the Detroit Land Bank Authority a legal entity, a second time.

Detroit Land Bank Authority Second Restated Articles of Incorporation Entered Into MIED Case# 16-cv-10291 o... by Beverly Tran on Scribd

Alas, Michael Brady failed, again.

He did not realize that anything that is entitled "intergovernmental agreement" should typically be entered between governmental entities, at least two different governmental entities, without conflicts of interest like having someone who is not a governmental entity, say... like the interim executive director sign the agreement when there is a conflict in publicly reporting as to whom was the real interim executive director according to published articles versus the minutes of the board.

The Detroit Land Bank Authority was born from an incestuous governmental conjugation, which makes it prima facie, an illegitimate, inbred, unincorporated, criminal enterprise.

But, of course, Michael Brady knew this because he is a "Legal Genius" (trademark pending).

Now there seems to exist other kinds of intergovernmental agreement called subpoenas whereby Michael Brady must respond, truthfully, or not.

SIGTARP Criminal Investigative Subpoena to Detroit Land Bank Authority - Redacted 05-19-2017 by Beverly Tran on Scribd

But, of course, Michael Brady knew this because he is a "Legal Genius" (trademark pending).

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Michigan emergency manager law targeted in congressional bill

DETROIT, MI -- Democrats in Congress on Thursday introduced a bill seeking to hinder emergency management policies that give far-reaching power over local governments to state appointees.

Former Michigan Emergency Manager Darnell Earley

U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Detroit, introduced the bill with support from 30 other Democrats, including Michigan Reps. Dan Kildee, D-Flint Twp., and Brenda Lawrence, D-Southfield.

The Emergency Financial Manager Reform Act would give the U.S. Attorney General authority to withhold law enforcement funding from states where an state-appointed emergency manager rejects collective bargaining agreements or other contractual agreements without local consent.

The law would also allow funding to the be withheld if an emergency manager "fails to protect against... discriminatory impact on voting rights, harm to public health or safety, conflicts of interest, mismanagement, and abuse of discretion," according to Conyers' office.

It would allow states to be stripped of up to 5 percent of funds allocated under the Edward Byrne Justice Assistance Grant Program.

"We cannot undo the damage already done by the lead-poisoned water in Flint or fix the harm already caused by the hazardous conditions in Detroit's public schools," Conyers said in a statement.

"But we can stand together and make sure the unaccountable emergency managers responsible for these disasters – and the legal system that empowered them – are not permitted to inflict further harm on our citizens or our constitutional rights."

Michigan's powerful emergency manager law has placed state appointees in control of Detroit, Pontiac, Flint, Ecorse, Hamtramck, Allen Park Lincoln Park and Benton Harbor in recent years.

Each of those cities have since transitioned out of emergency management and remain under oversight of financial advisory boards.

Emergency managers remain in the school districts of Detroit, Highland Park and Muskegon Heights.

"Sadly one only has to look at my hometown of Flint, Michigan, to see the dangerous consequences of emergency financial managers," said Kildee in a statement.

"It was decisions by such unelected emergency financial managers that led to the current water crisis in Flint. They are entirely bottom-line focused, bringing a failed philosophy to government that puts saving money at any cost ahead of the livelihood of people. Under Michigan's current laws, democracy is suspended in cities like Flint in favor of absolute power in the hands of emergency financial managers."

Detroit schools have been under emergency management since 2009, and the district is now seeking $715 million from the state legislature to relieve it of burdensome debt built up over years of state control.

But state control over Detroit city government in 2013 and 2014 has faced less criticism, with the city being relieved of $7 billion in debt after a bankruptcy case that was led by an emergency manager.

A message seeking comment on the bill was left with Gov. Rick Snyder's office.

HR 4754 Emergency Financial Manager Reform Act of 2016

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Rep. Johnson requests House Judiciary hearing on arbitration

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Rep. Hank Johnson (GA-04) sent a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte requesting a full hearing to carefully review the issue of pre-dispute (“forced”) arbitration clauses that appear in millions of consumer contracts – from employment to automobile sales and from nursing-home admission to cell phone service. 

The letter, cosigned by Judiciary Ranking Member John Conyers (D-Michigan), comes on the heels of a powerful three-part investigative series in The New York Times examining the alarming rise by corporations of including forced arbitration clauses in consumer contracts that block consumers’ access to the courts, and also their right to participate in class-action lawsuits.

According to the series, forced arbitration falls woefully short as a fair and just system for consumers seeking to hold corporations accountable when a dispute arises.

“Simply put, pre-dispute, forced arbitration deprives consumers of their day in court, and is a secretive, abusive and unfair process that favors corporations,” Johnson said. “With forced arbitration stacking the deck against the consumer, corporate overreach can’t be checked. The Seventh Amendment to the Constitution guarantees to people the right to a jury trial in a court of law before an impartial judge; in a trial that is open and fair. In stark contrast, The New York Times has resoundingly established that forced arbitration is a closed, unjust, and discriminatory system.”

Congressman Hank Johnson (GA-04) is the author of the Arbitration Fairness Act and ranking member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law, which exercises jurisdiction over issues of arbitration.

U.S. Representatives Johnson and Conyers Letter to House Judiciary Chairman Goodlatte on Forced Consumer Ar...

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Hamtramck Investigation May Validate Emergency Manager Law

It seems the City of Hamtramck is slated to reluctantly receive an Emergency Manager, again.  What is even more interesting is the fact that the FBI is conducting an investigation into the city's contracts, or rather its questionable procurement process.

Not referencing employment contracts it seems federal investigative findings may comport an Emergency Manager decision to terminate contracts.  Whether or not federal charges are sought have yet to be seen, but is highly speculated.  

In the event there are federal indictments, without discussions of a trial, conviction and appeal, PA 436 would be significantly validated, further dissolving arguments in other pending federal cases challenging the emergency manager law.

Simply put, whatever the outcome of the federal investigation, the fact that there is a federal investigation becomes fodder to terminate contracts.  Hamtramck is a sub-receipient of federal funds and it is the obligation of the state to monitor how the funds are used.  This is the same logic of a state removing a child from the parent for neglect and abuse.  

It should also be taken into consideration that Hamtramck Public Schools has a strong likelihood to also receive an emergency financial manager and become part of the Michigan Education Achievement Authority.

Hamtramck Financial Review Team Appointed By Michigan Governor Rick Snyder

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder appointed a financial review team Wednesday to look at the books of Hamtramck, a city within Detroit.

The appointment under Public Act 436, commonly known as the emergency manager law, follows the Michigan Department of Treasury's preliminary review of the City, which found a "serious financial condition."

Hamtramck was historically a Polish enclave that now has a particularly ethnically-diverse population. The small city is surrounded by Detroit and has faced similar problems, like unemployment, loss of auto jobs and decreased services.

The review was undertaken at the request of city officials, the state said.

According to a Treasury statement, the review team members are:

• Ed Koryzno, administrator, Office of Fiscal Responsibility (State Treasurer’s designee). Koryzno was previously city manager of Ypsilanti for more than 15 years.


• Doug Ringler, director, Office of Internal Audit Services within the Department of Technology, Management and Budget (DTMB) (DTMB's designee). Ringler is a certified public accountant and certified internal auditor.


• Eric Lupher, director of Local Affairs, Citizens Research Council of Michigan (nominee of the Senate Majority Leader). Lupher has worked for the organization since 1987, most recently on "local government matters, including intergovernmental cooperation, governance issues, and municipal finance."


• Max Chiddister (nominee of the Speaker of the House of Representatives). Chiddister was formerly the executive director of the Detroit Public Safety Foundation, spent 18 years as vice president of government affairs for J.P. Morgan Chase/Bank One and previously served two terms as mayor of Goshen, Ind.


• Frederick Headen, legal advisor for the Michigan Department of Treasury. Headen worked with the Treasury since 1997. Previously he had a position as legal counsel for the Citizens Research Council.

The Department of Treasury pointed to several problems in Hamtramck, according to a statement. State officials don't believe the City's submitted deficit reduction plan is sufficient, or that it adequately addresses structural debt. Current budgets don't comply with laws about deficit spending. They also have not made $2 million of required pension contributions to avoid problems with cash flow.

In 2012, Hamtramck's City Council fired City Manager William Cooper after he issued a warning about impending payless paydays. At the time, a projected budget shortfall of $2 million prompted speculation that Hamtramck might be the subject of a state takeover.

If Snyder does eventually appoint an emergency manager to Hamtramck, it wouldn't be the first time. It was declared to be in a financial emergency under an older law in 2000, and Louis Schimmel, the current EM of Pontiac, Mich. was appointed Hamtramck's emergency financial manager by Gov. John Engler in 2000. According to an online biography, Schimmel served for five years, during which time he "sold unused assets, out sourced services, resolved numerous long standing legal matters and streamlined city government operations."

The review team has 60 days to determine whether a financial emergency exists in the City of Hamtramck, after which they are allowed to request one 30-day extension.

Under the new emergency manager law PA 436, EMs have extraordinary powers, including the ability to revoke collective bargaining contracts, sell off public assets, impose taxes on residents without a vote and discharge elected officials. The law is an updated version of Public Act 4, which was repealed by voters last November. State legislators passed the new version last December and it took effect in March. During the interim period, an older law was in place that allowed the state to appoint officials with more limited powers, known as emergency financial managers.

Last month, the state appointed Kevyn Orr as emergency manager for Detroit after a financial review team found a severe fiscal emergency. Including Detroit, six Michigan municipalities (as well as three school districts) have emergency managers:

View Michigan Cities With Emergency Managers in a larger map

CLARIFICATION: A previous version of this story identified financial review team appointee Max Chiddister as the executive director of the Detroit Public Safety Foundation, as stated in a release from the Michigan Department of Treasury. Chiddister no longer holds the post of executive director as of October 2012, a spokeswoman for the foundation said.

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Children's Rights Needs To Rake Massachusetts Over The Coals

New Reports Show Massachusetts Failing to Protect Children in Foster Care

Children’s Rights: Thousands of young lives endangered due to lack of oversight within child welfare agency

Want to know why?  Click here

Do not believe me?  Click here to read how the feds caught Massachusetts in a $47 million Medicaid administrative hustle.

All this happened under the stewardship of Mitt Romney.

(Boston, MA) — A massive review of Massachusetts foster care shows that nearly one in five children who have been in state care for at least two years have suffered confirmed abuse or neglect — all while in the custody of the state Department of Children and Families (DCF), according to one of five reports issued by independent child welfare policy experts and released today by national advocacy group Children’s Rights and local counsel. All rapes and beatings were paid for by tax dollars.

“Far too many children in Massachusetts remain at risk of maltreatment even after they enter the protection of the state’s child welfare system,” said Marcia Robinson Lowry, founder and executive director of Children’s Rights. “These new reports further underscore the critical need to overhaul as it fails to meet its moral and legal duty to keep kids in foster care safe from further harm.”  One would be led to believe that after decades of throwing money into a dysfunctional system which only resulted in an increase of systemic corruption of dysfunctionality, there would be some semblance of common sense to realize what is being witnesses is a classic text book example of the term "sunken costs".

A report that reviewed case files of more than 480 children shows that is failing to meet its own policies and performance targets. The findings are consistent with federal studies that rank Massachusetts among the bottom 10 child welfare systems in the United States when it comes to ensuring children are safe in foster care and have stable placements.

Additional reports issued today examined the day-to-day performance of  These in-depth studies show that the state’s foster care system is harming children as a result of systemic dysfunction in several key areas:

• DCF social workers are not consistently making required monthly visits to children, violating DCF policy and federal standards. 

• DCF workers fail to make more than a quarter of the monthly visits to children required under federal law and  More than 25 percent of approved foster homes do not receive required annual reassessments or license renewals in a timely manner, and nearly 15 percent of new kin placements do not receive timely home studies to assure safety.

• DCF has not developed an adequate contract monitoring system to supervise and assess the performance of private child placement agencies or private institutional living facilities despite the fact the state refers approximately 60 percent of children in foster care to such placements.

• DCF is among the bottom 10 systems in the nation when it comes to keeping children in stable placements; and studies conducted in 2011 reveal that children in state custody are shuffled between foster homes at extremely high rates. Two named plaintiffs had more than 20 placements and three others had between eight and 12 placements.

• The agency falls in the bottom third of foster care systems in the country when it comes to finding permanent homes for children in a timely manner.

• Among a sample of children in care sometime between July 1, 2009 and June 30, 2010, more than 18 percent who were reunified with their parents reentered DCF care due repeat abuse or neglect.  Pay attention to the time frame of July 1, 2009 and June 39, 2010.  There was another "study" which should be properly referred to as a federal audit uncovering a relatively unsophisticated revenue maximization scheme.  It goes like this:

Massachusetts takes the "reasonable cause" evidentiary standard and revs up the "when in doubt, report it" policy based on a scathing report from Children's Advocacy Institute and First Star, who later collaborate with the imperialistic morality parade called "Every Child Matters", who now seems to be operating as a Political Action Committee.

When mandatory reporting policy was expanded and reinforced there was a shift in funding streams.  Instead of home and community based services, programs and services were cut like family reunification; whereby, extending the length of stay in care and increasing recidivism rates.

• Among a sample of children in care more than two years, more than 50 percent were administered one or more psychotropic medications.  Once a child is in placement Medicaid billing is optimalized because Medicaid pays without asking any questions to the legitimacy of costs or services.  When a child is put on psychotropic medication, the state can bill Title IV-E more for the keep of the child.

“DCF prescribes powerful psychotropic drugs to foster kids while it has not even developed a system to monitor the medical records of children in state care,” said Lowry. “This is just one example of how a lack of oversight within the agency is endangering thousands of young lives while DCF management continues to defend its dysfunctional child welfare system.”  Allow me to take this one a step further.  Massachusetts does not even have a system to monitor its administrative costs in most of its Medicaid programs.  I believe I would be quite safe to wager that Massachusetts does not even have any internal controls for its child welfare contracts.

The five experts who conducted the studies have extensive backgrounds in their respective fields of child welfare policy, social work, organizational management and child and adolescent psychiatry. Their independent reports include:

• DCF operations that finds structural deficiencies across many key areas. The report is authored by Cathy Crabtree, who served for eight years as Assistant Commissioner for the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services and two and a half years as Associate Commissioner for the Alabama Department of Mental Health.

• A Review of Named Plaintiffs’ Case Files which studies five of the six named plaintiff children and finds that DCF fails to meet minimum practice standards. The report is authored by Lenette Azzi-Lessing,  Ph.D, a professor of social work at Wheelock College. Dr. Azzi-Lessing was a social work practitioner for nearly 30 years in Rhode Island.

• DCF fails to adequately monitor the administration of powerful psychotropic medication to children entrusted to its care. It is authored by Christopher Bellonci, MD, a professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine and the senior psychiatric consultant at the Walker Home and School in Massachusetts.

• A Safety Review of the  DCF safety net finding holes in the agency’s performance on special investigations, licensing, contract monitoring and related safety practices and authored by Arburta Jones, former Executive Director of the Division of Central Operations in the New Jersey Department of Children and Families from 2006 to 2008 and Chief of Staff of the New Jersey Office of the Child Advocate from 2003 to 2006.

• DCF fails to meet legal, regulatory, and policy standards across a variety of case practice areas. The study is conducted by the Children’s Research Center, a non-profit social research organization and a division of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency.

Children’s Rights, with Boston law firm Nutter McClennen & Fish filed the lawsuit known as Connor B. v. Patrick in April 2010, charging  DCF with failing to meet constitutional requirements and its legal duty to ensure the safety and well-being of children in its custody by routinely placing them in dangerous and unstable situations once removed from their parents’ care.

The lawsuit asserts that children in Massachusetts suffer abuse in foster care and bounce from one foster home or institution to another at alarming rates. Also, a high percentage languish in foster care for years, and ultimately age out of the system without permanent families or the skills needed to live as independent adults. The lawsuit links these problems to DCF’s failure to effectively manage its workforce, resources, and practices.

On January 4, 2011, U.S. District Judge Michael A. Ponsor rejected Massachusetts officials’ efforts to block abused and neglected children’s access to federal court by denying a motion to dismiss the federal case. Less than two months later, the judge ruled that the lawsuit may proceed as a class action on behalf of the approximately 7,500 abused and neglected children in state custody. A trial is set for January 21, 2013.

The lawsuit filed in 2010 named six children as plaintiffs to represent the class who at the time ranged in ages from 9 to 15 years old and shared a history of harm in  DCF 

custody. They included:

• Nine-year-old Connor who suffered sexual abuse as DCF shuffled him between seven different foster homes in three years. Connor struggles with severe mental, behavioral, and emotional challenges as a result.

• Adam 15 years old, who was severely beaten in a residential treatment facility. DCF failed to provide him with a permanent family and gave him no preparation for living independently as an adult.

• Camila R., 13 years old, who was separated from her two sisters and returned to her abusive mother, has lived in at least 11 different placements while in foster care. DCF denied her vital educational and mental health services.

• Fifteen-year-old Andre who has been legally free for adoption for over 10 years and spent seven of 12 years in the state’s care in a residential facility rather than a foster placement or relative’s home.

• Seth T. 13 years old, was bounced between five foster placements in his first sixteen months in foster care. DCF has effectively cut Seth’s ties with his family, arranged visits with his brothers only a few times a year and never properly explored the possibility of placing him with relatives.

• Fifteen-year-old Rakeem  was not only immediately separated from his three siblings, but also denied the opportunity to live with relatives who may have been able to care for him. As DCF has moved Rakeem through at least eight different foster and group homes, his education and behavioral health has suffered.

More information about Children’s Rights’ campaign to reform the child welfare system in Massachusetts can be found at www.childrensrights.org/massachusetts/.

I am extremely disappointed with how Children's Rights is handling the Michigan case.  I know in the past I have highlighted how attorney fees are not directly benefiting the children who have been harmed, but now I sincerely hope they rake Massachusetts over the coals and make them a national example for failure to comply.



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Chairman John Conyers,Jr. U.S. Judiciary Report on Michigan's Emergency Manager Law

U.S. Judiciary Chairman
John Conyers, Jr.

This is the House Judiciary Committee Democratic Staff Report, under the Chairmanship of U.S. Representative John Conyers, Jr.,  on the legal implications of Michigan’s Emergency Manager law. The Report represents the first comprehensive legal analysis of the Emergency Managers law since its adoption. Foremost among the Report’s detailed findings is the conclusion, based on expert testimony (including preeminent academic expert Professor Kenneth Klee) and legal precedent that the Emergency Manager law is unconstitutional because it violates the contracts clause of the U.S. Constitution. The Report also identifies other serious legal and management issues The Report also contains several recommendations, including amending the law; collaborative actions by local, state and federal authorities; and increased federal oversight of the law.


Democracy For Sale: Subverting Voting Rights, Collective Bargaining and Accountability Under Michigan's Eme...

Study Shows Private Contractors Usually Cost More than Public Employees

Just think what would have been found if the report had access to data for child welfare services contracts of states.

Woooweee!  Talk about waste, fraud and abuse.

Study Shows Private Contractors Usually Cost More than Public Employees

Posted on September 27, 2011

Conventional wisdom in Washington dictates that the private sector can always provide services at a lower cost than the federal government. A new study from the Project On Government Oversight (POGO), however, turns conventional wisdom on its head, demonstrating that the government rarely reaps the purported benefits of lower costs through the outsourcing of service work. In fact, POGO found that, on average, the government pays service contractors more than 1.8 times the amount it pays federal employees with the same education, doing the same job and performing similar tasks.

From the beginning of the Republic, politicians have debated about the size of government. As the federal government became a larger, more expansive social welfare institution, President Dwight Eisenhower became the first modern president to establish a policy of outsourcing federal services if a commercial equivalent was available for less.

In the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan, guided by his conservative ideology, expanded the outsourcing of government services. The approach reached its zenith with the "yellow pages test," prescribing that the government contract out any service found in the phone book. Since the Reagan administration, Republican and Democratic presidents alike have promised to reduce duplication and inefficiencies in government, which is often code for reducing the size of the federal workforce.

As the total U.S. population has grown, the number of federal civilian workers as a share of the population has declined. However, since work still needs to be done, the government has turned to contractors to perform public work, creating an expensive and expanding "shadow government." POGO notes that the size of the federal workforce has remained relatively constant over the last decade at about 2.5 million, but "the contractor workforce has increased ... from an estimated 4.4 million to 7.6 million in 2005." Additionally, the government now spends over $320 billion on service contracts annually, representing roughly one-quarter of all discretionary spending.

Conservatives have argued that "privatizing" public sector work will save costs because of the "overgenerous" pay and "lavish" benefits of public employees. This argument, as POGO indicates, relies "on the theory that the government pays [prevailing] private sector compensation rates when it outsources services."

As POGO's study reveals, this is rarely the case. Rather, service contractors charge more than twice the going private sector compensation rate for comparable tasks; to be more specific, private contractors are, on average, paid more than 1.8 times the amount the federal government pays its own employees to perform similar functions.

POGO's study examined 35 different occupational classifications and compared the "full costs of federal employee annual compensation" with the "average annual contractor billing rates" for those tasks. In 33 out of the 35 classifications, service contractors charged more than it would cost for the federal government to perform the task in-house; in the most egregious examples, service contractors charged more than three times the cost of a federal employee to perform a similar task in one case and almost five times as much in another. In over a third of the jobs studied, service contractors charged the government more than twice what federal employees earned to perform similar work.

The occupational classifications span routine services like grounds keeping and quality assurance to functions like budget analysis and language specialization – "frequently used to perform intelligence functions" – that can fall between legitimate work the government can outsource and inherently governmental tasks that only a federal employee should perform.

POGO limited its investigation to the General Service Administration's (GSA) 35 occupational classifications because the federal government does not provide accurate data on "contractor employees who perform government functions at a particular department or agency at any given time."

POGO calls on Congress to require federal agencies to use a standard coding system when awarding contracts, "the collection, reporting, and oversight of life-cycle costs associated with government services," and "greater transparency and improved pricing on GSA Schedule service contracts." Lack of transparency will continue to limit the ability of the government and the public to determine how much money the government saves or wastes through outsourcing, or to correct any excessive costs incurred. However, the report does not make the case that the federal government should never utilize contractors to perform the examined functions. POGO's investigation simply found that on average, federal employees perform the vast majority of the given tasks for less than a comparable contractor employee.

In addition to collecting and reporting lifecycle costs and greater accuracy and transparency of service contractor numbers, Congress should eventually require the posting of all federal contracts online – with appropriate redactions of any proprietary information – and the creation of a more accessible Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System (FAPIIS), which provides contractor performance information. While the cost of contractor services and the raw numbers of contractors are important to determining whether the government is getting value for its dollars, the public deserves a full accounting of what contractors are getting paid and how they perform.

This is particularly true today, as the nation debates how to reduce government spending. Members of the Super Committee should think about reducing the amount spent on service contracts before considering funding cuts for important public programs that help keep Americans safe and healthy, like food inspection, child nutrition, and low-income housing.

Bad Business: Billions of Taxpayer Dollars Wasted on Hiring Contractors

Still No New Info on Bidding Winners

Still No New Info on Bidding Winners

CMS Open Door Forum call sheds no light on which companies have contracts.

• By Laurie Watanabe
• Oct 14, 2010

At today's Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Home Health, Hospice & DME Open Door Forum, Michael Keane from the CMS division of DMEPOS competitive bidding said no new information was immediately available about the identities of the winning bidders.

"We wanted to provide an update on all the current information we have at this time concerning the final list of the contract suppliers," Keane said. "In testing a new program integrity tool on the list of potential competitive bidding suppliers, a number of red flags were raised that require further examination before CMS announces the final list."

Keane alluded to past abuse within the DME sector in his explanation of the delay. The original timeline for the round 1 redo of competitive bidding called for the identities of winning bidders to be announced by the end of September, though the official competitive bidding Web site (www.dmecompetitivebid.com/palmetto/cbic.nsf/DocsCat/Home) says September 2010 is a "target date."

"Given the past history of fraud in the DME arena, especially in Miami, CMS believes it is prudent to take the time to review these issues to ensure the program is best positioned to serve Medicare beneficiaries," Keane said. "We expect to move forward with the implementation of the program very soon, beginning with the announcement of the contract suppliers and continuing our aggressive education and outreach activities for beneficiaries and other stakeholders. Again, this is all the information we have to report on today."

An AAHomecare bulletin sent out earlier today expressed concern over the informational delay. "It is now mid-October and CMS has failed to release any information on the bid process or winning contracts," the bulletin said. "If CMS still plans to begin implementation of the bid rates in round 1 areas at the beginning of next year, it will leave little time for HME referral sources, discharge planners, providers, and patients to prepare for such a drastic change in the delivery of HME -- placing beneficiaries' safety at risk."

The Charity of the Attorney General

AG sees no evil in CPA contracts

If anyone wants to know why child welfare agencies are never contractually debarred or shut down, here is the perfect example:  There is no one else who can do the job.


There is one particular variable I found in this article that stood out.  The Attorney General's Charity Section.


When a non-profit is a Child Placing Agency (CPA), it typically is licensed by the state and does not go through the state's attorney general charity division.  For whatever reason, as a non-profit child welfare agency, they can now solicit donations.


But when the CPA is no longer a CPA because they had to shut down due to violations, they start back up, still in child welfare and still soliciting donations without approval of the attorney general's charity section.


I can only speak upon Michigan, but I know that the Attorney General's Charity Division does not have any oversight on the contracts in child welfare and I will bet in the rest of the States, this hold true.


There is another reason why the Michigan Attorney General has nothing to do with state contracts in child welfare and that is due to the fact that the Attorney General prosecutes child abuse and neglect cases.  How can the Attorney General administer a contract of an agency of which he contemporaneously advocates and advises?  This is why the attorney general, generously, covers his eyes to violations of law with CPAs


And this charity of the attorney general is why CPAs are never contractually debarred.

Vito snares $135M pact despite probe

The city and state are moving forward with $135 million in new home-care contracts with the Ridgewood Bushwick social-services agency controlled by Assemblyman Vito Lopez -- even as months-long investigations into its activities are going full steam ahead, The Post has learned.

City officials vigorously defended the unusual move, warning that hundreds of homebound Medicaid patients would be left in the lurch if the contracts were suddenly pulled.

"That's a service that can't stop," declared mayoral spokeswoman Jessica Scaperotti. "This money is not frozen."

That put the city in the awkward position of proceeding on one set of contracts with the politically powerful social-services goliath while freezing others pending a sign-off from the state Attorney General's Charities Bureau.

As The Post first reported, the city halted about $12.5 million in upcoming deals with the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council soon after it was disclosed that the Department of Investigation had uncovered fraud and corruption in one of its units as well as a pliable board of directors that had little idea what it was approving.

DOI is continuing its probe, including the nearly $1 million in salaries pulled down last year by two top executives who have close ties to Lopez, the Brooklyn Democratic Party leader.

Sources said federal authorities in both Brooklyn and Manhattan have also gotten involved.

Ridgewood Bushwick is one of dozens of agencies that provide attendants to 45,000 homebound Medicaid recipients in all five boroughs.

Ridgewood officials said it currently has 341 home attendants in Queens, 726 in Brooklyn and provides 290 housekeeping aides in all the boroughs except The Bronx.

The aides perform household chores; the attendants offer such care as bathing and feeding.

The next round of contracts cover Jan. 1, 2011, through Dec. 31, 2013. Ridgewood Bushwick is in line to receive two, one covering parts of Queens worth $45.6 million and another for Brooklyn neighborhoods worth $89.6 million.

Although it's widely known for its senior center and housing services, Ridgewood Bushwick receives the largest share of its $100 million a year in city and state contracts for home-care services.

The public will get a rare chance to weigh in when all of Ridgewood's home-care contracts become the subject of hearings before the Mayor's Office of Contract Services on Thursday.

The meeting starts at 10 a.m. at 22 Reade St. in lower Manhattan. Typically, almost no one comes out to testify.

Business as usual

* City and state renewing $135 million in home-care contracts with Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council for Medicaid recipients.

* At the same time, city is delaying $12.5 million in other contracts, pending approval of AG’s office.

* State has frozen all other Ridgewood contracts, worth $25 million.

* Ridgewood serves more than 1,300 homebound patients.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/vito_snares_pact_despite_probe_JGYRPnVHqyeMKxiwIJWQYP?CMP=OTC-rss&FEEDNAME=#ixzz11yUBCq53