Denouncing Seema Verma's "Textbook Definition of Corruption,"
Jayapal Calls for Medicare Chief's Ouster
"She must resign or be removed."
watchdog's report revealing that the administration official violated federal requirements in her management of over $6 million in contracts.
"Verma has been using government money for her personal benefit" and showed that
the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator engaged in "the textbook definition of corruption."
the OIG said it looked at three contracts for strategic communications services from June 2017 through April 2019 and found:
CMS allowed a subcontractor individual to perform inherently governmental functions, such as making managerial decisions and directing CMS employees.
CMS also administered its strategic communications services contracts as personal services contracts.
CMS officials exerted a level of control over the contractors' work that exceeded what is allowed under service contracts;
in essence, CMS administered these contracts as if the services had been procured under CMS's statutory authority to contract for experts and consultants.
Lastly, CMS
did not comply with FAR [Federal Acquisition Regulation] requirements in managing contract deliverables and approving the use of a subcontractor,
did not maintain complete working files for all three contracts, and
paid some questionable costs.
"She has defied rules, skirted regulations, violated trust, misled Congress, and she must be replaced,"
"Besides arranging contracts with personal friends to raise her profile and thus misspending CMS dollars,
the IG investigation identified additional hundreds of thousands of 'questionable costs' all associated with reckless spending,"
"She has put the agency at risk of fraud and abuse and therefore she has put the public in jeopardy."
The "report confirms that Administrator Verma and her top officials
used contracts in violation of federal regulations and
spent taxpayer funds inappropriately to retain these private consultants,"
https://www.commondreams.org/news/20...edicare-chiefs
Verma is ally and protege of Christian supremacist idiot Pence
Will Trash first the IG?
Trash/Barr's "unitary executive" means nobody and nothing in the Exec branch is subject to Congressional oversight.