For immediate release: Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Contact: Oversight and Government Reform Press Office, (202) 225-5051

Chairman Towns’ Probe of DoD Contract Awards Deepens

WASHINGTON –  Chairman Edolphus “Ed” Towns (D-NY) sent another letter to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates demanding information about DoD’s decision to award lucrative contracts to companies with a history of poor performance.  The recent letter follows up on a March 3, 2010 letter from Chairman Towns to Secretary Gates which questioned the Department of Defense’s (DoD) decision to award a $2.8 Billion contract to Kellogg Brown Root (KBR) to provide logistic support, theater transportation and postal services in Iraq.  The committee is committed to identifying and rooting out waste, fraud and abuse in all areas of government contracting.

“Billions of taxpayer dollars are being funneled to poor performing contractors with a history of waste, fraud and abuse without sufficient oversight,” said Chairman Towns in his letter to Secretary Gates.  “For this reason, unreasonable delays or apparent disregard of our requests are unacceptable.  We would prefer that the Defense Department provide the information on a voluntary basis, within a reasonable period of time.  However, we will not hesitate to use all of the means at our disposal to compel a meaningful response, if necessary.”

In response to the chairman’s original request, DoD stated in a letter on March 16, 2010 that the documents requested by the Committee would be provided by mid-May.  Then on May 14, 2010, DoD provided the Committee with an extremely limited document production, that was partially responsive to only one part of the Committee’s information request.  Additionally, the letter stated that the document production was delayed and would not be completed until late June 2010.

“For an issue of this magnitude, it is imperative that the Committee expeditiously receive the requested documentation to facilitate our investigation,” said Chairman Towns.  “Quite simply, the American people deserve a timely, thorough examination of contracting decisions that not only expend billions of dollars, but also impact the health and safety of our troops abroad.”

Similar requests from the House Oversight Committee to DoD have been met with significant delay.  Chairman Towns is still waiting to receive documents related to a February 2, 2010 request for documents related to alleged conflicts of interest in a contract awarded to Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC).

Additionally, Chairman Towns requested information relating to an ongoing investigation of the Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan (CSTC-A).  Chairman Towns did not receive any information until he sent three follow up requests over a three month period.

Chairman Towns requested that Secretary Gates response to his latest request, along with the remainder of the original documents request by June 4, 2010.

The text of the letter to Secretary Gates is included below.

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Documents and Links

Letter from Chairman Edolphus Towns to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates