VA Keeps Payment Machine Churning

Last week the Veterans Affairs Department announced it had granted a six-month extension on the IT contract for its Financial Services Center in Austin, Texas. The reason? The contract expired at the end of September, and without the extension, the VA could not pay the bills for its medical centers.

The VA said it had an "urgent and compelling need" to award $2.6 million to incumbent contractor RDI Systems/KGS Inc. of San Antonio for continued IT support at the Austin Center, as it had not finished the work on a new five-year contract for the center with the General Services Administration.

If this is so urgent and compelling, why wasn't someone compelled enough to get a new contract in place before the old one expired?