'ONLY THE BEST'----Top health official violated federal contracting rules

[spanone]

CMS Administrator Seema Verma spent more than $5 million in taxpayer money on politically connected contractors to help raise her profile, do communications work

A top Trump administration health official broke federal contracting rules by using more than $5 million in taxpayer money to pay politically connected contractors and subcontractors, according to an inspector general report released Thursday.

Seema Verma, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) within the Department of Health and Human Services, brought in high-paid contractors from June 2017 to April 2019 to provide strategic communications advice to boost her personal profile, spending that was first reported by Politico. The inspector general’s finding details how Verma leveraged personal and political relationships to award personal contracts for work that should have been done by government employees, adding that the agency “paid some questionable costs.”

“CMS allowed a subcontractor individual to perform inherently governmental functions, such as making managerial decisions and directing CMS employees,” the inspector general wrote in the 70-page report. “CMS’s administration of these contracts put the Government at increased risk for waste and abuse.”

Verma, a close ally of Vice President Pence, has played a key role in the government’s coronavirus response, serving on the White House coronavirus task force that Pence leads. CMS has rolled out a number of tele-health, hospital and nursing home rules and regulations over the past several months.

--PayWall--https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/07/16/verma-violated-contracting-rules/?hpid=hp_hp-banner-main_vermacontracts-205pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans

[Nevilledog]

1. There is not one legitimate thing attributable to this corrupt administration.

[Sherman A1]

2. Grifters

One and all.