POGO: Penalized contractors kept winning contracts
A government watchdog group says some contractors kept winning federal work despite being banned from getting that work.
Nine technology and professional services companies are among the 25 suspended or debarred firms that improperly won federal contracts following those penalties, a watchdog group said today.
The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) said in a report today that 25 contractors were awarded additional contracts in fiscal 2006 and 2007 despite being banned from getting more federal business.
The group said it got the list from the Government Accountability Office, which on Feb. 26 released a report on its investigation of 25 companies that continued to win contracts despite being listed on the General Services Administration’s Excluded Parties List System. The system maintains information on contractors suspended or debarred from doing business with the federal government because of fraud, theft or other violations.
Most of the companies are involved in construction, manufacturing and maintenance services; and nine are in technology fields. They received additional contracts primarily because of errors by contracting officers, including failures to check the list system database, incorrect searches on the database, misspellings of names and incorrect punctuation, POGO said.
For a complete list of the contractors in the report, go to POGO's web site.