Legion wants Butler VA project to move forward
Work may not resume on an outpatient health center for the Department of Veterans Affairs Butler Healthcare System until 2015, nearly two years after crews broke ground, an official said.
For the 2.4 million-member American Legion, which has been critical of construction delays and cost overruns plaguing the VA, the Butler project is the latest sign of a troubled system.
“Every day a medical center is not completely done, it's a day a veteran may or may not be receiving care,” said Ed Lilley, the Legion's assistant director for health care in its Veterans Affairs & Rehabilitation Division.
An April 2013 Government Accountability Office report determined that costs increased for VA's four largest, most recent projects — in Aurora, Colo., Orlando, New Orleans and Las Vegas — from 59 percent to 144 percent. The average overrun was nearly $366 million. Delays ranged from 14 to 74 months, averaging 35 months, the report found.
Last May, The American Legion's National Executive Committee urged more congressional oversight on VA construction, and that the department consider using the Army Corps of Engineers to complete projects on time and on budget.
“Veterans are frustrated and concerned with the VA's construction processes and the continued delays and cost overruns, and unsure whether VA's improvements will ensure VA major construction in the future will be within schedule and budget,” the Legion's resolution stated.
The VA established a construction review council in April 2012 to oversee development and execution of building programs, the GAO report said.
Legislation sponsored by Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., which passed the House on Sept. 16, would require VA to hire a medical equipment planner as part of a project's architectural and engineering team, and use the Corps of Engineers as a special project manager. The bill is awaiting action in the Senate.
“It is the sense of Congress that the management of the major medical center construction projects of the Department of Veterans Affairs has been an abysmal failure,” the measure reads.
According to VA spokesperson Genevieve Billia, VA likely won't award a contract for the Butler facility until 2015. The General Services Administration now reviews all potential leases. Once the GSA finishes its review, VA could select a site for the outpatient center and award a development contract within three months.
Westar Development Co. beat out five other companies in May 2012 to build the $75 million outpatient center, which it would have rented to the VA for 20 years while receiving an average $7.6 million annually.
The project collapsed when the VA Inspector General's Office became concerned that Westar had misrepresented itself, including a claim that it was veteran-owned when it isn't, and that it may have had ties to a businessman sentenced on federal charges of racketeering, bribery and fraud unrelated to the Butler project. Westar officials denied any wrongdoing.
Jefferson resident Stan Schubert, a Marine who served in Vietnam, said Friday that fellow veterans at a Marine Corps League meeting he's attending in Fort Indiantown Gap have been asking about the Butler project.
“It's the talk of the town,” Schubert, 72, said. “People are wondering what's going on, when it's going to be built, where it's going to be built. It's very important.”
(Courtesy Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)