>Something to think about while we await developments in Saudi Arabia...
Date: Fri, 30 Aug 2002 00:08:45 -0400 > >Winnipeg Free Press > > Monday, July 29th, 2002 > > >Warning: The P3s are coming! > > > >Sunday, July 21st, 2002 > >MURRAY DOBBIN > >I am a definite outsider when it comes to corporations, so I don't often >get to enter the corporate culture and observe its special little rituals. > >But in May, I got the opportunity at a conference of the Canadian Council >on Public-Private Partnerships (C2P3), the front-group for some of the >world's largest corporations who try to make people feel good about >privatizing every precious public service we have. > >The folks at C2P3 swept into Vancouver in a mood that can only be >described as giddy anticipation. They could just taste the profits soon to >be made with the new Gordon Campbell anti-government, eager to turn over >public services to the private sector. Deputy minister Ken Dobell had >already declared that "the choice is now between either not getting the >project done at all or delivering it through a P3". > >The conference was a two-day cheerleading session for P3s, and no one was >allowed to say a negative word about these corporate giveaways. >Journalists at the event were not allowed to ask questions during the >sessions - we were reduced to trying to find presenters in the halls >amongst the paid-up delegates munching their canaps at the breaks. > >There were times when I felt I was at a meeting of the Shriners or some >other secret society. The P3 priesthood even makes up its own language, >wtih several promoters talking about the need for the "incentivization" of >businesses to get involved, and how to "incent" business and government >into embracing P3s. > >I, however, remained unincented. > >I would have liked to ask some questions of the privateers about their >actual record. Or, as they liked to say at the conference, their >"outputs". I would have especially liked to ask them about companies >repeatedly defrauding governments, like dozens of American health-services >corporations. (Many U.S. health-industry players now have their eye on >Canadian medicare -- there was a whole session on health care.) > >In the mid-1990s, health-care fraud by U.S. corporate giants has been >estimated as high as $100 billion annually. Washington actually started >catching up with some of these crooks by 1994 -- the year that National >Medical Enterprises paid a then-record $379 million in fines and >restitution for fraud in psychiatric services. In 1997, the mega-giant >Tenet Healthcare Corp. agreed to pay $100 million to settle claims that >patients were kept in psychiatric hospitals simply to maximize insurance >payments. In 1999 alone, the U.S. Justice Department recovered $840 >million stolen from the taxpayers through health-care fraud. > >Columbia/HCA Health Corp., America's largest hospital company, agreed to >pay $745 million to settle civil fraud charges. In 2001, Tap >Pharmaceuticals agreed to pay $875 million, including a $290-million >criminal fine. Schering-Plough Corp. will pay the U.S. Food and Drug >Administration $500 million. > >Lest you think that all that is involved here is a few hundred billion in >tax dollars, think again. People die as a result of these corporate >practices. American nursing-home advocate Ila Swan, testifying before the >Senate Committee on Aging, stated: "I am still aghast at collecting 26,000 >death certificates of nursing-home residents, showing the causes of death >from starvation, dehydration, fecal impactions, bedsores and urinary tract >infections." > >Are all for-profit contractors providing public services engaged in fraud? >Of course not. But you don't need to commit outright fraud to rip off the >public. If the private-sector trashing of medicare in the U.S. doesn't >convince you to keep these vultures away from your public services then we >can turn to our own backyard and look at what P3s have to offer public >education. > >In 1994, Nova Scotia committed itself to the most extensive experiment in >P3 schools anywhere in Canada. Called "leaseback" arrangements, they are >common in the U.S. The government leases the schools from a contractor and >then agrees to buy the school (or hospital, or prison) outright at the end >of 20 to 35 years. In Nova Scotia, the government contracted the >construction of 30 P3 schools to a local consortium. > >Within six years, there were so many scandals and improprieties the whole >grand experiment was causing a public uproar. The government cancelled all >future P3 construction. But by then, the 30 schools -- with contracts as >long as 35 years -- were slated to cost the public $32 million more than >if they had been built in the traditional manner. > >It isn't just the money. It turned out that corporations, not local >preferences, determined where new schools would be built, usually on land >already owned by a member of the consortium. And the consortium preferred >to locate in upper-income subdivisions with lower land costs, rather than >in urban cores where the schools were actually needed. > >You might think that if you were leasing the school you wouldn't have to >worry about repairs. Think again. The taxpayer is responsible for the >operating costs, capital improvements and repairs, and technology >upgrading. The private owners were assured of receiving 89 per cent of >their costs through leasing charges, and will still own the building and >the land when the lease is up. Then the government has to buy the school >whether or not it is still needed. > >Not sweet enough for you? Still need a little incentivization? Why not? >The contract exempts the owners and the builders from any legal or >financial liability for shoddy school construction, or even faulty wiring >and plumbing. This was an enormous incentive for using cheap labour and >low-quality materials. And, of course, since the corporation owns the >schools, it has the right to use them and all their technology for >profitable activities after hours, on weekends and during the summer. > >The C2P3 conference hosts didn't mention the Nova Scotia fiasco, which is >a little strange given that it presented the first Halifax P3 school with >its first prize in the "infrastructure" category in 1998. Students and >staff in that school were still drinking bottled water in 2001, 12 months >after arsenic was found in the school's well water. A water-filtration >system had been installed, but it wasn't being used because the school >board and the school's corporate owner couldn't agree on who was >responsible for providing students with clean water. > >I suppose we should give C2P3 a break. It's hard to find a corporation >today that isn't fiddling the books and/or stiffing the public. Case in >point -- Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting of Enron infamy) is right >there at the top of the list of "sponsor members" in C2P3's welcoming >letter to conference delegates. Among other things, Accenture is known in >Ontario for its outrageous cost overruns (from $70 million to $180 >million) in its welfare privatization scheme. They paid some project >managers $575 an hour. > >If Canadians actually buy the argument about P3s providing better and >cheaper public services it will only be after a prolonged period of >intensive stupidification. But governments are already there. It doesn't >seem to matter how many P3 disasters -- trains in Britain, water in Latin >America, prisons and schools in the U.S. -- rain down on an unsuspecting >public. It's a matter of faith, not reason. > >Accenture has just been handed several divisions of B.C. Hydro to run. >Pray for the B.C. taxpayer. > > >Murray Dobbin is a Vancouver-based journalist and author of Preston >Manning and the Reform Party. His last book is The Myth of the Good >Corporate Citizen: Democracy under the rule of big business. > >---------- >© 2002 Winnipeg Free Press. All Rights Reserved. > >Attachment Converted: "d:\eudora\attach\larry.hubich.vcf" > >--aJXPOYbZDeZbXQFJdHIBQTLEJVOXQP-- >
