Pentagon, FBI Probing Air Force Contracts (Commonwealth Research Institute)

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Source: Wash Post

Pentagon, FBI Probing Air Force Contracts
Questions Raised Over Non-Competitive Deal

By Robert O'Harrow Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 18, 2008; Page D01

Federal authorities have begun investigating a contracting arrangement between the Air Force and an intelligence firm called Commonwealth Research Institute, according to documents and people familiar with the case.

Agents from the FBI and the Pentagon's Defense Criminal Investigative Service in recent weeks have delivered subpoenas seeking details about how Commonwealth, or CRI, a little-known nonprofit organization in Pennsylvania, received work from the Air Force through a sole-source deal.

The investigators want to know whether Air Force officials followed appropriate procedures in granting work to CRI. They also want to know whether work was performed primarily by CRI or by more established corporations serving as subcontractors, according to people familiar with the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak about the case.

The investigation appears to be in an early stage and related in part to a five-year contract worth up to $45 million that was awarded to CRI without competition in 2006, according to people familiar with the investigation. That contract is for consulting, analysis and management support services for the Air Force, National Security Agency, CIA and other intelligence agencies, documents show.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/17/AR2008041703774.html