Serco, a private contractor conglomerate based in Britain, faces a $500,000 fine after videos surfaced online of a “fight club” taking place in a New Zealand prison under its control. Videos also surfaced of drug use in the prison, filmed on contraband cellphones and uploaded to YouTube.
New Zealand’s Labour corrections spokesman Kelvin Davis explained in an interview with NBR Radio that Serco had a “dodgy reputation” overseas and that the government should have known better.
Part of Serco’s “dodgy reputation” includes the company’s reputation as one of the questionable Obamacare contractors, after receiving up to $1.25 billion to process Obamacare applications.
In one facility, employees reported playing board games, reading books, and sleeping in offices at their taxpayer-funded center in Missouri.
“They’re told to sit at their computers and hit the refresh button every 10 minutes- no more than every 10 minutes,” one Serco employee told CBS News. “They’re monitored to hopefully look for an application. Their goals are set to process two applications per month, and some people are not even able to do that.”
Even before receiving the Obamacare contract, the “dodgy” company was also investigated for over-billing the United Kingdom government by “tens of millions of pounds,” according to the Washington Post.
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