Banned firms got new U.S. contracts in Iraq

[unhappycamper]

Banned firms got new U.S. contracts in Iraq
By Matt Kelley - USA TODAY
Posted : Tuesday Nov 18, 2008 8:52:08 EST

WASHINGTON — A firm suspended from U.S. government contracts for allegedly bribing Army officers was awarded a new contract in Iraq two days after the suspension was imposed, government investigators found. The Pentagon paid the suspended company more than $1 million under the new contract.

Contracting officers gave Lee Dynamics International a new contract in July 2007 despite warnings from military lawyers, according to a report issued by Stuart Bowen, special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction (SIGIR). The Joint Contracting Command-Iraq did not return calls on why Lee Dynamics was awarded the new contract.

The new, one-year contract allowed Lee Dynamics to continue operating warehouses for the Iraqi security forces. Army Maj. Gloria Davis, who was involved in awarding the company’s initial contract in 2005, killed herself in December 2006 after telling investigators that she took $225,000 in bribes from company founder George Lee, federal court records show. Another Army officer, Lt. Col. Levonda Selph, pleaded guilty last year to taking $9,000 in bribes.

Neither Lee nor his company has been charged with a crime. Lee and his lawyer, Howell Riggs, did not respond to messages.

Lee Dynamics, based in Kuwait, was one of three firms in the past two years that the U.S. military awarded new contracts or allowed to continue working on existing ones after they were banned, according to the SIGIR report and interviews with company and military officials. Contracts for the other two firms totaled $10.6 million.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/11/ap_contracts_111808/%2e