Poor safety record no bar to winning government construction contracts

One might assume that when a government agency awards a private company a contract to do construction work - for bridge or sewer work or other public utility repairs, for example - evaluating the company's safety and health record would be a prerequisite. This is, however, not the case. As the government watchdog organization Public Citizen details in a new report, numerous government contracts have been awarded to companies with chronic poor health and safety records. In a number of cases, such contracts have gone to companies with long histories of serious workplace injuries and fatalities. This is not ancient history. A company hired earlier this year as a subcontractor for an $870,000 NASA contract pleaded guilty last year to criminal charges over safety violations that occurred during work on a federal government contract and resulted in five worker deaths. More at The Pump Handle