Quote of note:
The two companies with the most business, nearly $700 million between them, were Boeing Co. and Integrated Coast Guard Systems, a partnership of defense contractors Lockheed Martin Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp.
Those companies have paid more than $250 million in the past three years to settle charges of improprieties involving their Pentagon contracts. Homeland Security audits also have accused the two companies of overcharging, in Boeing's case by $49 million.
US security contracts draw scrutiny
Questions raised on bidding process
By Matt Kelley, Associated Press | January 1, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The largest Homeland Security Department contractors include two companies that paid millions to settle charges they defrauded the Pentagon, one that paid a foreign corruption fine, and one accused of botching a computer system for veterans hospitals, records show.
About a quarter of the $2.5 billion awarded to the 50 largest Homeland Security contractors came under no-bid contracts, according to the department's records. At the Pentagon 44 percent of contracts were awarded under "other than full and open competition."
The rest of the money paid to the top contractors for Homeland Security, a bit more than $2 billion, was for contracts awarded through competition.
Some of the nation's largest federal contractors have won the new business of protecting America from terrorists, including many with a recent history of legal run-ins with the government, according to the records.
The two companies with the most business, nearly $700 million between them, were Boeing Co. and Integrated Coast Guard Systems, a partnership of defense contractors Lockheed Martin Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp.
Those companies have paid more than $250 million in the past three years to settle charges of improprieties involving their Pentagon contracts. Homeland Security audits also have accused the two companies of overcharging, in Boeing's case by $49 million.
