Okay, this one will go a little deep in the weeds. But bear with me because I think it’ll shed a bit of light on the amount of due diligence the Department of Homeland Security did on Shirlington Limo — the company now implicated in the Wilkes-Cunningham hooker scandal — before awarding them a $21 million contract for limo and shuttle services for DHS employees.
Today, over at his new blog at Harper’s, Ken Silverstein got a hold of and posted Shirlington’s contract with DHS. Now, remember, Shirlington was hired to provide two classes of service — limos for senior DHS executives and shuttle service around DC for DHS employees, mainly to and from public transportation hubs around town.
On page 11 of the 42 contract, there is a description of the limo part of the services Shirlington was supposed to provide.
Here’s the relevant passage …
Using the Government provided executive sedans, authorized staff shall be transported between various locations in the Washington, DC metropolitan area including service to and from Baltimore Washington, Washington Dulles and Washington Ronald Reagan National airports for authorized users departing on, or returning from, official travel.
Okay, sounds pretty straightforward.
The problem is that during the time Shirlington was bidding for this contract and even when it was signed, the Department of Transportation had revoked Shirlington’s right to transport people outside of metropolitan DC. So they weren’t even allowed to take people to Baltimore Washington Intl. airport. They were allowed to drive people to Dulles, but only barely, because the Department of Transportation defines Loudon County, Virginia as part of the DC metro area.
