Army contracting scandal reaches DHS
A $20 million contracting scandal involving the Army Corps of Engineers has now grown to include DHS; last week, Representative Edward J. Markey (D-Massachusetts) expanded the congressional probe to gather information on EyakTek, an Alaskan-native corporation that has received more than $1 billion in set-aside contracts from DHS and the Army
A $20 million contracting scandal involving the Army Corps of Engineers has now grown to include DHS.
Last week, Representative Edward J. Markey (D – Massachusetts) expanded the congressional probe to gather information on EyakTek, an Alaskan-native corporation that has received more than $1 billion in set-aside contracts from DHS and the Army.
In a letter to DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, Markey requested e-mails, contracting records, and other documents involving Harold Babb, EyakTek’s director of contracts.
Babb was arrested two weeks ago in what federal prosecutors called “one of the most brazen corruption schemes in the history of federal contracting.”
With the aid of two Army Corps program managers and one other man, Babb allegedly received hundreds of thousands of dollars to send contracts awarded to EyakTek through the Army Corps’ TIGER program to a particular company.
The four men are accused of wire fraud, bribery, and money laundering to which they all pleaded not guilty in a court hearing.
In particular, Markey is focusing on Babb’s connections to First Source, a $3 billion DHS contracting program for small and disadvantaged businesses.
While serving as an EyakTek executive, Babb also ran the company’s homeland security contracting subsidiary EG Solutions. The subsidiary was one of several companies competing for work through the First Source contract.
“These revelations raise new concerns about EG Solutions’ contract with DHS,” Markey said.
Last year an investigative report by the Washington Post uncovered that EG Solutions had sent the bulk of more than $166 million in First Source contracts to the firm GTSI. After the story was published, the Small Business Administration suspended GTSI and EG Solutions from further federal contracts.
In its 18 November suspension letter to Babb, the Small Business Administration wrote “there is adequate evidence that EGS committed fraud or a criminal offense in obtaining and attempting to obtain contracts, and in its performance of those contracts.”
