Report: GTSI suspended for taking small-business contracts

Latest update: GTSI suspended but vows to fight

The government has suspended GTSI from contracts, saying that the integrator improperly went through small businesses to win contracts intended for small firms, the Washington Post reported Friday night.

"There is evidence that GTSI's prime contractors had little to no involvement in the performance of contracts, in direct contravention of all applicable laws and regulations regarding the award of small business contracts," an SBA official wrote in a letter to GTSI's chief executive, Scott W. Friedlander, as quoted in the article by Post reporter Robert O'Harrow Jr.. "The evidence shows that GTSI was an active participant in a scheme that resulted in contracts set-aside for small businesses being awarded to ineligible contractors."

GTSI officials did not respond to O'Harrow's request for comment.

The allegations involve three small businesses, two of them Alaska Native Corporations, the Post reported. GTSI recently rebuffed a takeover offer by one ANC partner, EyakTek Corp.