Pretty wild stuff
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Seen before too on Winema NF in Oregon.
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What an interesting article. I think DHS is playing fast and loose with their definitions and straining credibility with the ânot firefightersâ and âactivelyâ.
A senior DHS official said in a statement to the AP on Friday that the two men apprehended were not firefighters and were not actively fighting the fire. Officials said they were providing a supporting role by cutting logs into firewood.
The 8/27 (Day of arrest) IAP has them assigned to staging with the Logs chief as div/group sup.
Bear Gulch Master IAP - Google Sheets
8/26 and 8/25 Table rock was Branch V contingency; Arden was assigned suppression repair.
8/20 to 8/24 Arden was assigned Div. Zulu, with a structure protection work assignment. Table rock was cutting indirect line.
Apparently, structure protection and indirect line is no longer firefighting?
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Maybe they should start putting out National contracts for âForestry Techniciansâ, instead of Type 2 Crews?
A lot of the PNW crew contractors use H2B visas to procure workers.
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This article asks if the firewood-cutting assignment was just a pretext, set up by the IMT to accommodate the DHS operation.
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The algorithm just brought this to my feedâŠ
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And thisâŠ
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Pretty hard to see how a 20-man crew billing out at $50-70 per man-hour ($12-17k a day, at 12hr shifts) could rack up $250k in fraudulent time on a 14-day roll.
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Pyrogeography, once potential fraud, contract irregularities or non-compliance are reported, most agencies go back and examine as many years as they legally can â casting the net as wide and far as they can. For example, in California, the Employment Development Department will go back 12 quarters or three years and look at everything and everybody youâve reported and paid (I have that T-shirt). Donât be surprised if they didnât do that and thatâs one reason the amount is so high. We are probably missing lots of facts and details.
Whether or not it happened the way they describe still needs to be determined. Staying clear of politics, as a business owner, I will say it is plausible that the scenario actually unfolded the way itâs being told. An agency looking at the contract can easily request another agency to double check their records to make sure that, for example, the person was actually paid those amounts and they reported those amounts as income. Then they ask another responsible agency to run Social Security numbers to make sure that all the income is being properly reported. That could easily cause them to dig in a little bit on the Social Security number issue and the work status. So, what you thought was a simple timekeeping issue on a fire or two can, depending on the agencies involved and how aggressively they want to pursue you, becomes a huge issue for a contractor. I wouldnât look at the $250,000 and think itâs got to be a set up. Although in the legal world you are considered innocent until proven guilty, in the audit world of some of the state and federal agencies mindset you are guilty until you can prove yourself innocent with documentation. Understand it can explode underneath you. I can tell you it sucks. In the contracting world, a simple issue can easily become a huge issue. After all that, NOW insert politics and making a point for some reason.
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Estimating with hypotheticals: 3 hrs x 20 crewmembers x 14 days = 840 hrs. 840 hrs x $59/hr = $49,560. If there were 5 crews⊠there you go. But what if- imagine for example- the contract had a clause in it that said something like âNo additional payment will be made for costs associated with crew support such as tool sharpening, equipment maintenance, invoice reconciliation, laundry service, check out, or any other âoff-shiftâ activities related to crew readiness beyond the guarantees set forth hereinâŠâ Hypothetically speaking of course, it would seem more like a labor issue. It would seem like most of the crew support referenced above that is not allowed is in fact work that must be done to be prepared to fight fire, and maybe the contract might be the actual problem.
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