FILLING THE ACORN CENSUS VOID

On September 11th, 2009 the U.S. Census Bureau severed ties with Acorn, who was going to be very involved in the 2010 Census. The jettisoning of Acorn was a direct result of the videos of ACORN employees facilitating the efforts of James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles, who were posing as pimp and prostitute respectively.

So what companies / organizations are going to fill the void? One of the companies currently scheduled to do 2010 census work is Vangent, Inc., based in Arlington, VA. Should we expect them to see an increased workload as a result of the Acorn vacuum? REUTERS reported back in July that Vangent was opening up a call center in Ogden, UT and that they will be hiring approximately 1200 employees in January 2010. They even have a "Click Here to Apply" banner on their home page for anyone interested. According to Vangent Vice President of Communications & Investor Relations Eileen Rivera, there are several requirements a prospective employee must meet.

To be eligible for employment, potential candidates must:

-- Pass a security check that includes fingerprinting

-- Have at least a high school diploma

-- Be legally able to work in the United States (Two-year residency)

-- Be able to read and speak English fluently

-- Sign a sworn statement to protect Census data

-- Pass a skill assessment test for the desired position

Sounds good, right? Maybe, until you look at the experiences of Kathleen Willey, who was hired by Vangent to process Rebate voucher applications in the Cash For Clunkers program, the administration of which was overseen by the Department of Transportation.

What Willey reportedly found in working for Vangent (through a minority owned staffing company named Astyra Corp.) didn't square with the requirements Vangent has listed for anyone hired to help with the census. Working with WORLD NET DAILY, Willey took notes of all that she encountered while at Vangent working on the Cash for Clunkers rebate vouchers. Shocking to be sure but the story within the story may be Vangent working with the Census Bureau in light of what Willey discovered.

"We were not asked for any prior work history," Willey said. "The job description was listed as data entry and called for the ability to type 30 words per minute. There were no job requirements actually listed on the application."

The form requested direct deposit information, signature on a confidentiality agreement and background check, tax information and two forms of identification.

Willey said, "Some people did not have two forms, and I heard one recruiter say, 'We will work with you on that.'"

Having worked in corporate America myself, I'm not unsympathetic to the challenges of hiring a massive amount of temporary employees through an outside agency. It's not at all easy to have a large number of people who don't know your business all show up at once and put them to work without some ramp up time. Effective planning ahead of time is critical and prevents a lot of inefficiency. I cannot speak to the level of planning that took place here but there are some disturbing claims made by Willey.

She asked a woman who interviewed her what she would need to do before beginning her new position.

"When I asked if I needed to take any kind of test, the answer was, 'No,'" Willey said. "She told me to report for work the next day at 4:30 p.m. When I asked if I had to pass a background check before I started, she said, 'No.'"

Eileen Rivera is quoted as disputing Willey's claim.

"That's absolutely not true. Every single temporary employee who was hired went through a background check. If the background check did not clear, then they were released. They were not allowed to work on this program."

Two mutually exclusive and diametrically opposed claims. Calling Joe Wilson. Calling Joe Wilson.

Assuming Willey's account is accurate, this was an ineffeciently run operation at best but even giving all involved the benefit of the doubt, it is another in a long line of glaring examples of why government should not interfere with the private sector and why Cash For Clunkers was such a bad idea. In either case, based on Willey's experiences, it would seem that Vangent should be closely watched in the run-up to the 2010 census to make sure procedures are followed.

As a taxpayer-funded program, all of the people who took paychecks from Vangent / Astyra were paid with my money. As a stakeholder in that operation, I have a right to demand more transparency and accountability with future operations subsidized in similar ways.

Just an idea but perhaps the Department of Transportation and the Census Bureau may want to communicate with each other about their experiences.

Do we need to hire an outside company to coordinate that meeting?

Here is the VANGENT HOME PAGE.