A project dubbed the “biggest construction failure” in the history of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) – already $1 billion over budget and more than a year behind schedule — is getting another $100 million taxpayer bailout.
After a Republican-led cash infusion approved by President Obama this week, construction will continue on a new veterans medical center near Denver that is expected to serve 400,000 former military service members and their families. Ahead of Memorial Day, contractors had prepared to stop work on the project as approved funding dried up after repeated overruns and delays.
The $100 million fix is only a stop-gap measure: it funds just three more weeks of work.
The costs to taxpayers for the project have already ballooned from an initial $328 million price tag in 2005 to $1.73 billion (a 427% increase), with years more construction to go, according to an April Government Accountability Office Report (the “Report”).
Also, the VA does not even have an estimate for when construction will be complete. It used to be February 2014, and now it is “unknown.” Reasons documented for the cost overruns and delays include a change in project scope (decisions to change plans from a shared university/VA medical center to a standalone VA medical center); and unanticipated events such as a need to eradicate asbestos and replace faulty electrical systems.
House Veterans’ Affairs Committee chairman Jeff Miller, R-Fla., has called the agency’s entire construction program “a disaster” and the Denver project its “biggest construction failure.”
Congress had imposed an $880 million spending cap on the program, but the agency has repeatedly lobbied lawmakers to lift the cap and provide more funds.
Because after all, what happens if the money stops pouring in? No one wants to walk away from such an important project…especially since hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars are already invested.
For more information about the Denver overruns (and others), access the Report here.
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This is why we need more accountability from the people making these decisions!!!