Pentagon Doles Out Sweetheart Deals for Wartime Supplies

It’s not just limited to fuel contracts. DLA, for instance, has also given major sole-source awards to Hesco Bastion, the U.K. firm that manufactures the ubiquitous sand-and-soil-filled perimeter defenses seen at U.S. bases throughout the Middle East and Central Asia. An Illinois company, Infrastructure Defense Technologies, recently submitted a formal protest with the Government Accountability Office in a bid to overturn DLA’s most recent award to Hesco, claiming that the agency had unfairly given a monopoly on defensive barriers to Hesco.

It’s worth pointing out here that Infrastructure Defense Technologies unsuccessfully sued DLA in the Court of Federal Claims over the same issue. The website of the powerhouse law firm Patton Boggs, which successfully represented Hesco in the case, notes that the court ruled Hesco “was properly awarded the sole source contract because only the Hesco product could meet the government’s stated needs for the procurement.”

That’s essentially the same rationale that DLA offered to Declassified for its no-bid award to Red Star, described as ““the only company that had the capability to meet operational needs.”

But saying that doesn’t necessarily make it so. We’ve covered some dubious “sole-source” awards before — the procurement of Russian helicopters, for instance — and it’s easy to detect a pattern: In cases where the government grants someone an exclusive rather than seeking multiple quotes, it usually ends up paying a much higher price. Shortly after taking office, President Barack Obama vowed to limit no-bid contracts, saying that contracting overhaul could save taxpayers billions of dollars a year. One wonders if anything at all has changed. (click HERE for original article)

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