WASHINGTON, May 18 (UPI) -- U.S. lawmakers say they will hold hearings to probe a Department of Homeland Security transport contract, which members of Congress from both parties charge raises procurement and security concerns.
Department officials have vigorously defended both the way the contract was awarded and the security procedures under which it is operated. They have launched a push-back on Capitol Hill, visiting with lawmakers in an attempt to assuage concerns.
Despite their efforts, Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., chairman of the oversight subcommittee of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said Thursday he wanted to hold a hearing on the contract award -- to Alexandria, Va.-based Shirlington Limousine and Taxi.
Aides said later he hoped the hearing could happen when Congress returns from its Memorial Day recess in mid-June, but that the timing would depend on when they were able to get documentation from the department.
The hearing is the latest in a series of moves lawmakers have taken since the Shirlington contract came into the spotlight at the end of last month after media reports that the company was under scrutiny as part of a congressional bribery probe.
The company was said to have provided limousines that took prostitutes to parties where lawmakers -- including since-jailed California GOP congressman Randall "Duke" Cunningham -- were allegedly being entertained by intelligence and defense contractors. Shirlington's owner, Christopher Baker, reportedly has a lengthy criminal record and a troubled financial history.
Last week, the committee's ranking Democrat, Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, wrote to the department's inspector general, asking questions about how the contract was awarded.
He expressed concerns that the contract was not bid out properly; that the company might not qualify for the special "set-aside" status under which it was entitled to bid; and that the department might not have fulfilled its due diligence requirements with respect to ascertaining that the company was a responsible contractor.
With a speed that surprised some familiar with the department's often arthritic response to congressional requests, its Chief Procurement Officer Elaine Duke met with Thompson last week and Wednesday provided written answers to the questions he had posed the inspector general.
In the letter, a copy of which was obtained by United Press International, she explains that Shirlington first won the contract in April 2004, under the set-aside provisions of a small business program for Historically Under-utilized Business Zones, known as HUBZone.
The program is administered by the Small Business Administration, which ruled that Shirlington qualified when its status was later challenged by one of the unsuccessful bidders.
Details of the proposed contract were posted on the government's Federal Business Opportunities Web site, and four companies made offers. Three of them were eventually ruled ineligible, wrote Duke, but the Federal Acquisition Regulations specify that in such circumstances, the award should be made to the remaining qualified bidder.
In any case, she said, the determination that Shirlington's offer represented the best value was made when there were still two companies in contention.
Regarding questions about Shirlington's fitness as a bidder, Duke said that department procurement staff had performed a series of routine credit and financial checks on the company.
A Thompson aide, who asked for anonymity, said officials had failed to do proper due diligence checks which would have revealed the troubled personal and financial history of Shirlington's owner.
The aide also said that the 2004 award "doesn't pass the smell test."
The contract Shirlington is currently operating was awarded in October last year. It is for one year, renewable for each of four years thereafter, for a total potential value of more than $21 million.
Under the contract, Shirlington provides 12 shuttle buses and 16 drivers for them to ferry homeland security employees between the department's many Washington facilities. The buses, which can hold up to 25 people, run continuously on 10 routes for 12 hours every work day.
In addition, the company provides drivers for 10 sedans the department leases to carry senior officials.
Officials stress that the company has performed the contract very satisfactorily. "There have been no performance issues," Department of Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke told UPI.
He said the department had launched a push-back on the issue, taking Duke to the Hill to visit with lawmakers in an effort to assuage their concern, and correct what Knocke said might be misperceptions.
"Sometimes the facts are not made entirely clear in news accounts," Knocke told UPI.
Republicans have also raised questions about the security implications of the contract. At a hearing of his sub-committee Thursday, Rogers suggested that the department should pierce the corporate veil and look into the backgrounds of the officers and directors of small companies before contracts are awarded.
But according to briefings given to lawmakers, the cars and shuttle buses are all kept secured at department headquarters overnight, and Shirlington's operations there are overseen by a 20-year veteran of the U.S. Secret Service who inspects the vehicles before they leave each morning and when they return at night.
All drivers for the senior officials' sedans are subjected to full background investigations and criminal record checks as though they were being assessed for a security clearance.
"There are no security concerns whatsoever," said Knocke.
Another administration official questioned the need for the hearing at all. "Will this hearing make us any safer?" he asked. "Aren't there more important things they should be doing?"
