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Re: Finally! Grant Approved for Caltrain-corruption. or corruption????
Author: BOB2
Date: 05-23-2017 - 14:02
AECOM is a big company, I'm sure they'll find something for her to do.....if they are prohibited from using her on this project, as they may well be. It's an unfortunate aspect of how the system works, and yet, it is also an excellent pool of talent for the private sector.
These situations often do create conflicts, and there are rules about working for firms you've hired at some agencies. Like prohibiting employment at such firms, but these are legally "iffy" in many cases. Also there are rules about working contracts for a period of time, usually one year for most "working" folks, or there can be total prohibitions against billing hours that you had contract authority over at some point in your public sector career. In this case, however, it is a "funding" agency that she worked for, and since she had nothing whatsoever to do with the local contracting process that hired AECOM, it would not constitute any direct conflict of interest, legally.
Could this kind of relationship lead to conflicts real or perceived? Just did, didn't it? And yeah, it seems to happen to senior bureaucrats and Congressmen quite often, where "one hand" "washes the other", and "I'm just shocked to see gambling going on in this casino...." So it would be nice to see some clearer rules? Wouldn't hurt. But, these rules are often found by courts to run afoul of our right to earn a living, too.
Welcome to how the big world works, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse.
AECOM, in this imperfect real world we actually live in, on a scale of 1-10 (1=value earned to 10=total theft of ALL public funds), is somewhere between a 3 and a 5 based upon the work I've seen them produce, and the rates they charge. And, since I've seen a few 8's and 9's in my career, with millions of public dollars wasted for fraudulent hours never worked by anyone, at any time, but paid none the less, for "work", in some cases never completed, this level of "corruption", in hiring this relatively qualified "employee", really pales in comparison to a few more notable firms I've encountered in my career, that I'd be tracked down and sued for mentioning.
These situations often do create conflicts, and there are rules about working for firms you've hired at some agencies. Like prohibiting employment at such firms, but these are legally "iffy" in many cases. Also there are rules about working contracts for a period of time, usually one year for most "working" folks, or there can be total prohibitions against billing hours that you had contract authority over at some point in your public sector career. In this case, however, it is a "funding" agency that she worked for, and since she had nothing whatsoever to do with the local contracting process that hired AECOM, it would not constitute any direct conflict of interest, legally.
Could this kind of relationship lead to conflicts real or perceived? Just did, didn't it? And yeah, it seems to happen to senior bureaucrats and Congressmen quite often, where "one hand" "washes the other", and "I'm just shocked to see gambling going on in this casino...." So it would be nice to see some clearer rules? Wouldn't hurt. But, these rules are often found by courts to run afoul of our right to earn a living, too.
Welcome to how the big world works, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse.
AECOM, in this imperfect real world we actually live in, on a scale of 1-10 (1=value earned to 10=total theft of ALL public funds), is somewhere between a 3 and a 5 based upon the work I've seen them produce, and the rates they charge. And, since I've seen a few 8's and 9's in my career, with millions of public dollars wasted for fraudulent hours never worked by anyone, at any time, but paid none the less, for "work", in some cases never completed, this level of "corruption", in hiring this relatively qualified "employee", really pales in comparison to a few more notable firms I've encountered in my career, that I'd be tracked down and sued for mentioning.
