Murtha's nephew gains no-bid contracts

WASHINGTON, May 5 (UPI) -- A nephew of U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., has received millions of dollars in no-bid Pentagon contracts, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

Robert Murtha Jr., 49, nephew of the chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, received $4 million in Defense Department contracts, all of them without competitive bidding, for a range of warehousing and engineering services by his company Murtech Inc., the newspaper said.

Murtech's contracts primarily from the Army Space and Missile Defense Command in Huntsville, Ala., including $1.4 million-per-year deal to store materials for the military's Critical Reagents Program and a $2 million contract to provide "logistics and engineering" for the Defense Department's joint dismountable reconnaissance systems, the Post said.

Robert Murtha told the newspaper there was nothing improper with the contracts, saying, "If we're not doing our job well, we wouldn't be doing our job. I'm successful at the work I do because of the skill sets I have. … You don't know how good someone is unless you work with them."

"Congressman Murtha has had no influence over any contract award by our organization," Pentagon spokesman Julius Evans told the Post.