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September 23, 2009
Obama's Clunker Fiasco and HE Wants to Run Health Care??? God Help Us All!
Stung! Undercover celeb exposes Obama fiasco
Obama delivers speeches praising the alleged success of Cash for Clunkers, a former rebate processor for the federal program – also working undercover for WND – is calling it "complete chaos."
After the federal "Cash for Clunkers" program ended Aug. 24, the Department of Transportation reported that nearly 700,000 clunkers were taken off the roads and replaced by more fuel-efficient vehicles. Rebate applications worth $2.877 billion were submitted by the 8 p.m. deadline. The Transportation Department hired federal employees and private contract workers to process the rebates vouchers so car dealers would be compensated.
Former White House aide Kathleen Willey was hired as an employee with Vangent Incorporated, a company that provides information technology management and business process outsourcing services to the public and private sectors. Its clients include federal agencies such as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the U.S. Departments of Defense, Education, Health and Human Services, Justice and Labor and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.
But what her employer did not know was that Willey, the author of the book, "Target: Caught In the Crosshairs of Bill and Hillary Clinton," was also taking notes on all she observed and experienced for WND.
Vangent, based in Arlington, Va., secured a contract from the Department of Transportation in late August and earlier this month to handle 300,000 applications – or nearly half of all Cash for Clunkers vouchers.Vangent Vice President Eileen Rivera told WND the company hired at least 4,000 temporary employees in Chester, Va., Tampa, Fla., and London, Ky.
No work history needed
Willey processed the Cash for Clunkers vouchers at her position in Chester, Va. She attended a job fair on Aug. 31 and was hired through Astyra Corp., a minority-owned staffing company.
"We were told that we would be working on the Cash for Clunkers programming, examining all of the documents that the government had received from dealers all over the country," Willey told WND.
She said many of the applicants had never even heard of the Cash for Clunkers program.
"We were not asked for any prior work history," Willey said. "The job description was listed as data entry and called for the ability to type 30 words per minute. There were no job requirements actually listed on the application."
The form requested direct deposit information, signature on a confidentiality agreement and background check, tax information and two forms of identification.
Willey said, "Some people did not have two forms, and I heard one recruiter say, 'We will work with you on that.'"
She asked a woman who interviewed her what she would need to do before beginning her new position.
"When I asked if I needed to take any kind of test, the answer was, 'No,'" Willey said. "She told me to report for work the next day at 4:30 p.m. When I asked if I had to pass a background check before I started, she said, 'No.'"
However, Rivera said, "That's absolutely not true. Every single temporary employee who was hired went through a background check. If the background check did not clear, then they were released. They were not allowed to work on this program."
Willey reported that as many as 300 new employees attended orientation for new positions with Vangent.
"One of the first things we were told was that Cash for Clunkers will help the environment," she said.
One supervisor told the group, "The president has passed a good bill to do something good for the American people, but this program is a 'moving target.' Rules are changed daily."
A Department of Transportation webinar instructor repeated the statement about the program being a "moving target."
"He was obviously with the administration because he told us that the Cash for Clunkers program was a huge success for the country as well as the environment," Willey said. "He told us that we are dealing with 'three times the business in one-third of the time.' He also told us repeatedly that we were going to have to 'get out of our comfort zones' and be flexible.'"
A paycheck to do 'absolutely nothing'
The following day, on Sept. 2, employees waited outside from 4:30 p.m. until 6 p.m. to get into the building.
"Once inside, we waited another 30 minutes to sign in 'so we would get paid,' Willey recalled. "I noted that it was written on the piece of paper that our work day started at 4:30. We then waited in line at the 'badge table' to get our badges. When I got there, I had no badge. I finally got to my desk at about 6:45 p.m., where I sat with nothing to do until 10 p.m."
The employees waited for their user IDs and passwords to access the Car Allowance Rebate System, or CARS. Meanwhile, they were being paid $14.71 an hour "to do absolutely nothing," Willey said.
"There was not a supervisor to be found," she said. "Because I was bored to death, I read a newspaper and a book."
At 10 p.m., more than five hours after signing in, she said the employees were still being paid to remain idle. Willey and another employee went to find a supervisor.
"When we finally found one, we told her we wanted our user IDs and passwords so we could get to work, but she was too busy ordering out," she said. "At 10:20 p.m., we finally tracked down someone who had a list of our user IDs and passwords. I tried to get in and was ultimately locked out of the system. At 11:30 p.m., I found another supervisor and told her my problem. She told us she would look into it, but we couldn't find her again. We were told to go home at midnight, but that we should put 12:30 a.m. on our timesheets."
More trouble with federal CARS system
"Despite all of my efforts to find help, I found myself sitting at my desk with absolutely nothing to do," she said. "Most everyone around me seemed to have no problem with that. I finally started reading my newspaper while I waited."
Suddenly, she said, a supervisor appeared and admonished her for reading at her desk.
"When I tried to explain to her that there was no work and that I had nothing to do but stare at a blank screen, she ordered me to put my paper away," Willey said. "When I asked her if she would help me get into the system, she told me she could not. I folded my newspaper and put it on my desk. She reappeared and yelled at me to remove it from the top of my desk, saying that newspapers, books, etc., are not allowed on your desk."
Another supervisor appeared to help the employees with the computer problem.
"I finally got in, but was immediately locked out again," she said. "She was gone and could never be found again. My friend and I finally figured out by ourselves how to get in and stay in."
Once in the CARS system, employees were told to send an e-mail requesting assignments. Willey waited for work until 11:50 p.m., when she approved her first transaction. She ended the shift and left work only 50 minutes later.
Free money!
During a 37.5-hour work week, Willey reported actually working only 14 hours – but she was paid for more than 37 hours of work.
"Two of those nights, I had no work at all," she said. "On those two evenings, when I left, I complained to two different supervisors and I got two different responses: 'Milk it, baby!' and 'Free money!'"
However, Rivera told WND, "A 37.5-hour work week was typical, but it is very unlikely that anyone was sitting around with nothing to do because there was so much work to do."
Willey continued, "After our 10:30 p.m. break, it was party time. Not a lot of people worked between 10:45 p.m. and 12:30 a.m. I will say, that there were some hard workers there, but they were all older women and a few older men."
Willey, a Level 2 reviewer who examined Cash for Clunkers vouchers after they had been checked once by a Level 1 reviewer, said the vouchers were being returned to "irate" dealers as many as seven times.
She said the vouchers are "rife with idiotic mistakes by Level 1 reviewers who are rejecting them for no reason at all, mostly because they are not paying attention."
"I am amazed at the number of vouchers that have been rejected in the last six weeks," Willey said. "Many have been rejected and returned to dealers three to seven times! And for no good reason. What is happening here is that the Level 1 examiners are so inept and lazy that, rather than take the time to closely examine and review these vouchers the way that they should, they just hit the reject or approve button without a second thought. That, of course, slows down the whole process and the dealers aren't getting paid by the Department of Transportation. The dealers are frustrated and irate, and make no bones about it when they return their documents that are correct and don't need to be revised. When their documents are returned for revision, they have no number to call or person to e-mail."
Willey told WND that auto dealers were often very good about submitting the eight documents required to receive a rebate, but some vouchers were being sent back because Level 1 examiners failed to hit the "next" button to go to the following page of documents.
She said, "I saw that time and time again. Then the dealers would write back and say, 'It's on Page 2.'"
Willey said a single voucher would be passed around to as many as a dozen workers without being processed.
"I'd get something, and I would see that it had gone around to people in our office in Chester six or seven times and nobody had worked on it," she said. "It was obvious that maybe someone would look at it and say, 'This is too complicated. I'm going to back out of it.' Then they would back out of it and someone else would do the same."
Crashing CARS
The New York Times reported that the CARS computer systems were often overloaded, and dealers said they would finish one page in the application, hit enter and nothing would happen. Then a message would notify the dealer that the page had "timed out."
Dealers have indicated that failure to be reimbursed would be a "nightmare" for them. At Los Angeles' Galpin Motors, Vice President Beau Boeckmann told the New York Times his company would "try to 'unwind' the sale, get the slightly used car back and try to sell it again."
Other dealers told the Washington Post that failure to repay them for the Cash for Clunkers program could force them into bankruptcy. When Cash for Clunkers was first announced, the government said it would reimburse dealers within 10 days of a sale. But many dealerships pulled out of the program early following frustrations concerning delays on federal payments.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said the government has compensated dealers or approved rebates for 83 percent of the cars sold. The government has paid or cleared $2.38 billion of the $2.87 billion in dealer vouchers, according to the Transportation Department. Officials claim 8.8 percent of applications have been rejected and 8.1 percent are still being reviewed.
"I know some of you have a little heartburn, but you're all going to get paid," LaHood said in a Sept. 16 speech to the National Automobile Dealers Association. "Maybe not in the timely way you would have liked."
'Complete waste of taxpayer money'
LaHood has said all dealers will be reimbursed by Sept. 30. In August, the Dow Jones Newswire reported that federal bailout recipient Citigroup was selected as one of the private contractors to process Cash for Clunkers paperwork. It was awarded an estimated $7.7 million federal contract.
Edmunds.com, a website for car buyers, predicts that the hangover from Cash for Clunkers could be responsible for the loss of 100,000 car sales across the nation this month. Some dealerships now say they are once again facing hard times because car sales are declining and many companies are still waiting for voucher reimbursements, the Boston Globe reported.
"It was probably, in the end, a complete waste of taxpayer money," said John Wolkonowicz, a senior auto analyst at IHS Global Insight, Lexington forecasting firm. "The dealers, who were supposed to be the primary beneficiaries, many were forced into cash flow problems because the government didn't pay them in a timely fashion."
Robert O'Koniewski, executive vice president of the Massachusetts State Automobile Dealers Association, which represents 441 dealerships, told the Globe that most dealers are probably still owed money.
"This program was very good at getting product off the lot, but there haven't been long-term benefits," he said. "Dealers are reporting that showrooms are pretty dead right now."
On Sept. 14, less than two weeks after she was hired, Willey received a surprise when she appeared for work:
"After sitting at work tonight from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., we were all herded into a room and told that our jobs were over and we were no longer needed."
Willey said the contractor released the day and night shifts without explanation. Likewise, Vangent workers in Florida were let go after only two weeks, according to the Tampa Tribune.
"I spent the majority of my time sitting in that office waiting for work. I have never seen anything like this," she said. "What I saw while I worked on Cash for Clunkers rebates was complete chaos."
However, Rivera told WND that Vangent successfully processed 300,000 vouchers in less than three weeks –with 98 percent accuracy.
"If you think about it, that was a lot of work," she said. "It was a matter of ramping up the number of employees as quickly as we could, getting everybody trained and processing the vouchers. We finished the contract."
Rivera told WND she believes the government will finish processing the vouchers and meet its Sept. 30 deadline.
"We were very efficient," she said. "We are very proud of the work we did, and 98 percent of all the vouchers done correctly is testament to the good work that all of the employees did during the program."
Wild Thing's comment......
This is beyond disgusting! And this total FREAK Obama and his clulnker BS thinks he should be trusted to run anything and especially our Health Care?????? He can go to HELL!!!
....Thank you Mark for sending this to me.
Mark
3rd Mar.Div. 1st Battalion 9th Marine Regiment
1/9 Marines aka The Walking Dead
VN 66-67
Posted by Wild Thing at September 23, 2009 06:45 AM
Comments
Vangent, a minority owned staffing company was hired to process the vouchers. Then a list of customers of the company. All government agencies. Minority + government = incompetance.
Cash for Clunkers was nothing but a feel good program. It was hailed as helping the over emphasized environment. It blew $3B of our taxmoney and screwed up the car market.
Posted by: TomR at September 23, 2009 11:44 AM
I read that they sold more Ford f-150 pick ups than the Prius of shiiiii. (I'm not POSITIVE, but that sounds like it was HIGH possible...). Just more Shuck and Jive........
Posted by: pontiff alex at September 23, 2009 03:14 PM
Tom, you said it all, that
is all true and exactly what happened.
Posted by: Wild Thing at September 23, 2009 07:48 PM
Alex,they should have named it that
Shuck and Jive.
Posted by: Wild Thing at September 23, 2009 07:49 PM
