VA Drops Second Agent Orange System Contract

I have picked up very strong signals that the Veterans Affairs Department has dropped plans to issue a second contract to develop a system to process claims for veterans suffering from diseases related to the Vietnam-era chemical Agent Orange.

IBM won the original claims processing system contract in July, and evidently did such a poor job that VA Secretary Eric Shinseki personally called IBM chairman Samuel Palmisano to express his dissatisfaction with the lack of progress.

The solicitation for the second contract, I'm told, was an added tool to get IBM's attention, vendors told me, more of a club than a real plan to go ahead with another deal. The VA quietly informed interested bidders it did not plan to issue a second contract over the past week.

So what's the status of the IBM system, which was supposed to go into operation earlier this month? I keep asking the VA that question, and so far have not received a reply.

If anyone out there in VA land has concrete info on the status of the IBM system please send me an e-mail.