Thursday, August 02, 2012
Sen. Joseph Lieberman
The Department of Justice has been doing a lousy job of informing other federal agencies about companies that have broken the law and are supposed to be barred from contracting work.
According to the department’s inspector general (IG), the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) has failed to update key procurement databases in a timely manner so that government offices will know if a business has been convicted of fraud or other crimes, such as drug trafficking.
The IG also found that BJA was not informing U.S. Attorneys’ offices that they must turn over information about contractor convictions, which allows BJA to then input these details into databases.
Two U.S. senators, Joseph Lieberman (I-Connecticut) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), chairman and ranking member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, respectively, have asked Attorney General Eric Holder to explain how he intends to fix the problems at the BJA.
They have given Holder until August 6 to respond with answers.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
To Learn More:
Senators Tell DoJ to Fix Its Suspension, Debarment Databases (by Jason Miller, Federal News Radio)
Justice Fails to Flag Contractors with a Criminal History (by Eric Katz, Government Executive)
Audit of Statutory Suspension and Debarment Activities within the Department of Justice (DoJ Office of the Inspector General) (pdf)
Big 5 Defense Contractors Not Hurt by Their Multiple Cases of Misconduct (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
Some Government Contractors are Too Big to be Banned (by Noel Brinkerhoff and David Wallechinsky, AllGov)
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