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December 20, 2019 By cs

Mixing politics and procurement creates a toxic brew

If elected officials are allowed to influence government contracting decisions it won’t end well for the public.

Imagine this: You are a mid-career government acquisition professional responsible for making an award decision on a contract worth over $400 million. As you evaluate the bids you also can’t help but see and hear the president of the United States openly advocate for one bidder. You’ve already heard, directly or through channels, that one or more U.S. senators are also pressing for this company to get the award. What are you going to do?

This is the heart of the controversy swirling around the recent award of a border wall contract to a North Dakota company for which the president and at least one senator publicly advocated. Was the award politically influenced? Is the company the best positioned to build this portion of the border wall along the southwest border? Since the company was deemed unqualified on more than one previous occasion, one has to wonder: Has the company taken significant steps forward in its capabilities to the point where it is now best suited to the requirements of the contract?

Of course we don’t know the answers to any of those questions. Neither does the president or the senator. And we may only get answers should another bidder protest the award and the questions are litigated. But that’s not actually the biggest concern this incident raises. The biggest concern is that we even have to have this discussion.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.govexec.com/management/2019/12/mixing-politics-and-procurement-creates-toxic-brew/161729/

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: influence, influence peddling, political influence, politics, proposal evaluation

December 28, 2011 By AMK

Defense official pleads guilty to taking bribes

A high-ranking Defense Department official with influence over federal contracts pleaded guilty Wednesday to accepting bribes.

“I’m accepting responsibility and ready to move forward,” Desi Deandre Wade, who was the department’s chief of fire and emergency services in Afghanistan, said in federal court in Atlanta.

Wade was arrested Aug. 24 at an Atlanta hotel after accepting $95,000 in cash from a contractor working undercover for the FBI and the Defense Criminal Investigative Services.

Afghan-based investigators were tipped off about Wade in July after he took a $4,000 bribe in exchange for facilitating the awarding of a federal contract. That led to the sting operation in Atlanta, which coincided with an international fire safety convention.

According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert McBurney, the 40-year-old Gulf War veteran wanted 5 percent of the profits generated from a $4.5 million contract and finally agreed to accept $95,000.

“We have the defendant’s own words on tape,” said McBurney, along with Wade’s confession.

“It was just wrong in so many ways,” Wade told U.S. District Judge Willis Hunt.

Wade, of Climax, Ga., faces up to 15 years in prison but, because he has no criminal record, will likely receive a much lighter sentence, said his attorney, Ebony Ameen. Sentencing is tentatively scheduled for Feb. 29.

Wade’s lawyers cited economic hardship as a factor behind his influence peddling.

“He’s a good guy who made one bad decision,” Ameen said.

Wade has been on leave with the Defense Department since his arrest in August.

— by Christian Boone – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution – Wednesday, December 21, 2011 – This article appears at http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/defense-official-pleads-guilty-1267121.html.

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: acquisition workforce, bribe, bribery, corruption, DoD, influence peddling

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