Word: gao
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...GAO investigators last March made 900 phone calls to the call centers for the 10 largest private insurance plans handling the drug program and found that on two-thirds of the calls they were given incorrect or incomplete answers to questions. In particular, in 70% of the cases when service reps were asked a question like "My mother takes the following drugs... which of your plans would cost her the least amount annually?" they provided inaccurate or incomplete responses...
...Medicare officials are furious with the report. Mark McClellan, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, fired off an angry memo to GAO after he read it, accusing the agency of using "inaccurate, incomplete and subjective methods" to reach its conclusions. McClellan complains that the congressional watchdog agency asked trick questions in some cases, which a call center employee couldn't be expected to answer. GAO stands by its questions and its conclusions...
...because a part had corroded. The Missile Defense Agency penalized the Boeing Co., the system's developer, $107 million for the string of snafus. Pentagon audits also slammed Raytheon Corp., which builds the $40 million interceptor, for shoddy work. "The contractor cannot build a consistent and reliable product," the GAO said in a March report...
Kolbe is convinced that the government could get a better price with more competition. Another GAO report, written in 1998, bolsters Kolbe's stance. It found that in at least 13 negotiations with Crane, agency practices have caused "the government to pay more for currency paper than it should have...
...contract a square deal, given the exacting specifications. "Any additional costs come from our need for the highest, most modern security technology," he says. And he has his own powerful allies in Congress, notably Massachusetts Senators John Kerry and Ted Kennedy, who have parried both Kolbe and the GAO...