Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Many of the nation’s largest corporations have received million-dollar stimulus contracts after facing modest to no competition, according to The Wall Street Journal. About 20% of the 22,000 federal contracts given out using stimulus monies have been awarded on a no-competition basis, with the remainder being dispersed after four or fewer businesses vied for the contract.
Of the $12 billion in stimulus deals given to the private sector, large contracts have gone to Del Monte Foods Co. and Hormel Food Corp.’s Jennie-O Turkey for stocking food pantries, while pharmaceutical manufacturers GlaxoSmithKline, Merck & Co., and Novartis have been paid for supplying extra vaccines to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors have sold hybrids and other fuel-efficient vehicles to the General Services Administration for the federal fleet.
But the biggest winners so far among corporations are those involved in the cleanup of the Savannah River nuclear weapons complex. Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, a management corporation created to handle the project, has received $1.28 billion in stimulus contracts—money that has been divided up between partners Fluor Corp., Northrop Grumman and Honeywell International Inc. A similar joint deal is working on cleaning up the vast nuclear weapons operation in Hanford, Washington, which involves URS Corp., Energy Solutions and CH2M Hill.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Big Firms, Little Competition Mark Federal Stimulus Deals (by Louise Radnofsky, Wall Street Journal)
Savannah River Site Mortality Study National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health)
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