Whistleblower: Army translators failed exams

VA issues second contract for Agent Orange claims

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  • Is the Army paying a contractor that could be putting troops in harms way? A former employee of a company that provides the Army with translators in Afghanistan says more than one in four of those interpreters failed language proficiency exams. ABC News reports the company, called Mission Essential Personnel, holds contracts worth up to $1.4 billion. The former employee, who has filed a whisteblower lawsuit, says that someone changed failing grades. The company has rejected those claims. The Army says it’s investigating.
  • Veterans Affairs is looking for a contractor to build a new benefits claims processing system, even though the department has already chosen IBM to do the job. The solicitation calls for a fully automated system that can process claims for veterans that have sicknesses related Agent Orange. That chemical was used during the Vietnam war. NextGov reports the requirements for the second contract are roughly the same as those assigned to IBM. But the winner needs to do the job in one-third the time, next month. VA hasn’t said why it issued a second procurement.

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