Despite knowing that alternatives existed for providing vehicular armor kits to the Army and Marine Corps, Pentagon procurement officials awarded over $2 billion in “sole-source” contracts to two big defense companies that had difficulty delivering the armor on time, according to a June 27 Defense Department Inspector General report. At the time the contracts were awarded to Force Protection and Armor Holdings, senior officials argued for competitive bidding.
Says the report:
Force Protection, Inc., did not perform as a responsible contractor and repeatedly failed to meet contractual delivery schedules for getting vehicles to the theater. In addition, (U.S. Army Tank-Automotive Command) Life Cycle Management Command and Marine Corps Systems Command decisions to award commercial contracts to Force Protection, Inc., may have limited the Government’s ability to ensure it paid fair and reasonable prices for the contracts.
As for Armor Holdings — which, by the way, is being purchased by the much-investigated BAE Systems — one subsidiary, Simula Aerospace and Defense Group, delivered to TACOM armor kits with “missing and unusable components” and missed several shipment deadlines, resulting in “increasing risk to the lives of soldiers.” According to the IG report, Simula didn’t qualify under the Federal Acquisition Regulation as a “responsible prospective contractor,” but it got its contracts anyway.
The armor kits went to vehicles in particular danger to insurgents in Iraq, such as Humvees, and to IED-response vehicles like the JERRV and the Buffalo. Marine Corps and counter-IED officials claimed that they awarded the contracts based on “market research” demonstrating the superiority of Force Protection to provide the armor, but couldn’t supply any such research to IG investigators.
In some cases, contracts were awarded to FP months before the results of testing on the vehicles’ armor requirements was even available. The Armor Holdings subsidiary Simula didn’t have adequate production capabilities or quality controls in place — something the responsible TACOM official didn’t bother to check before she awarded Simula its contract. As a result, Simula missed numerous shipping deadlines, delivered armor kits that covered only the left-hand-side of Humvee doors, and didn’t even deliver sufficient “nuts, bolts and other hardware” for installing the armor that did make it to Iraq.
One thing the report doesn’t establish is why these two companies got such lucrative contracts when they were both so clearly sub-par and competing suppliers existed. But Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY), who ordered the IG report, said today that she still needs to know “why military officials who were aware of other competitors were overruled,” and she’s calling on the Oversight and Armed Services committees in the House to hold hearings on the contracts.
