Waste Short-Changed Workers

[Frustratedlady]

This was posted in The Hawk Eye, this morning. Another example of a government department poor management of programs to compensate workers who had suffered from cancer and other illnesses because of working near radiation and toxic substances in the manufacture of ordnances. They have finally begun releasing funds to the former employees or their survivors.

http://www.thehawkeye.com/daily/stories/ln8_0629.html



Waste Short-Changed Workers

The Government Accountability Office report released earlier this week blames weak internal controls in the energy department for the payments, which sapped nearly 30 percent of the budget for the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program.

"The bottom line is that sick workers got short–changed and the taxpayers got gouged," Sen. Charles Grassley, R–Iowa, said in a press release. Congress created the compensation program in 2000 to help Department of Energy employees and contractors who developed cancer or other illnesses because of their exposure to radiation and toxic substances.

Grassley, along with Sens. Jim Bunning, R–Kentucky, and Jeff Bingaman, D–New Mexico, requested the GAO study in 2004 after learning that a contractor hired to process claims had been paid millions of dollars even though just one worker had received compensation. That same year, Congress shifted oversight of the compensation effort to the Department of Labor, a decision the GAO report seems to validate.

"The Energy Department had virtually no oversight of contractors assigned to the important program," Grassley said. "It's outrageous to see contractors line their pockets while Cold War veterans got stuck with absolutely nothing. It looks like the ridiculous salaries outlined during the 2004 Energy Committee hearing were just the tip of the iceberg."

A pdf file is available at www.thehawkeye.com