Info sought on contractor of faulty ammo

WASHINGTON, April 10 (UPI) -- Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said the Bush administration needs to answer questions on a contractor who delivered faulty ammunition to U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

The senator Thursday sent letters to officials in the departments of State and Defense, insisting on answers about how contractors are selected and how the company AEY Inc., could have been labeled erroneously as a Small Disadvantaged Business 50 times, The Hill reported.

The designation enabled AEY to secure about $300 million in federal contracts, said Kerry, chair of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

In his letter, Kerry said the government's lack of oversight of contracting programs allows companies such as AEY Inc. to access wrongly hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts as an SDB, undermining the program created to level the playing field among businesses competing for federal contracts.

In addition, Kerry wrote to the Small Business Administration, seeking information on the Small Disadvantaged Business program.