NOEL GRIMA

Following the announcement on Friday that the General Contracts Committee has recommended that government proceed and enter into an agreement with ACS Healthcare Solutions to provide products and services for the first phase of the Integrated Health Information System, which will include the provision of information technology needed to support the operations of the Mater Dei Hospital, questions are being asked about the possible links between ACS Healthcare Solutions and the US defence industry with possible links even to Guantanamo Bay.

The government said that ACS Healthcare Solutions is a leading healthcare IT services provider delivering business process outsourcing services across the US. ACS has over 4,000 healthcare clients and directly employs 2,300 dedicated IT-healthcare employees.

ACS Healthcare Solutions is a fully-owned subsidiary of US-based ACS Inc., a leading end-to-end business process outsourcing and IT solutions provider in the US. It employs over 50,000 staff and in 2006 generated revenue exceeding $5 billion.

But according to Copwatch.com, Maryland-based Lockheed Martin Corporation, bought up a small company named Affiliated Computer Services Inc. (ACS) with a Department of Interior technology contract, and then used the contract to employ private interrogators at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

A similar contract employed interrogators who were used in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

The following are some links that may prove useful to readers searching for more information.

www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11940 www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11272 www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11780 www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12757www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=13092