GAO Report: Banned companies continue to receive government contracts illegally

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT
by Meg White

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report today revealing that just because a company is banned from working for the government, doesn't mean the gravy train has to stop.

The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) is tasked with keeping a searchable list of businesses and individuals that are barred from receiving government contracts or payments due to illegal actions on their part. The Excluded Parties List System (EPLS) was criticized by the GAO back in 2005, after which GSA promised to improve it. The GAO says they didn't.

Again, GSA is making a half-hearted attempt to clean up after itself. The GAO report says that the GSA's remedial "actions described do not achieve the intent of GAO's recommendations. GSA simply restated its current policies instead of agreeing to take steps to oversee the completeness of EPLS and ensure that exclusions are properly enforced."

Companies kept on the government payroll include, but are not limited to:

• A German company that was caught trying to send nuclear bomb parts to North Korea
• One company whose employee sabotaged an aircraft carrier in such a way that would have caused "lethal burns" if the attempt had worked as planned.
• A company guilty of Social Security fraud
• Another guilty of Medicare fraud

The investigation took place between December 2007 to November 2008. The GAO even used its own money to buy body armor from a company banned from government contracts by the U.S. Air Force for falsifying their safety test results.

The GAO found the GSA is at fault because the EPLS doesn't make exclusions clear enough, but also faulted agencies and contracting officers for not even checking the database prior to handing out contracts.

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT

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