Wednesday, May 23, 2007

$90 million stolen from taxpayers while Tom Davis looks on, defends contractor

According to WaPo, On April 12, the U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Arkansas filed suit against Sun [Microsystems], alleging that the company violated the False Claims Act when it "made false statements to the government about its commercial sales practices and the discounts it offers to its commercial customers."

Sun was selling tens of millions of dollars a year in software and services to agencies across the government, and the GSA stood to lose millions in industrial funding fees. Details on the prices remain secret because they are considered to be proprietary information. But the audit findings -- that Sun's commercial customers were getting discounts not provided to the government -- could not be ignored by agency officials.

One GSA contracting officer negotiating the discounts for taxpayers, Herman Caldwell, was reassigned. Lurita Doan and James A. Williams were pressuring the new GSA contracting officer, Mike Butterfield, to give Sun a break. Williams was told the government had already been overcharged $77 million over 6 years and was about to be overcharged another $14.4 million.

Hours later, a new contracting officer, Shana Budd, was assigned to replace Butterfield

Tom Davis had a critical role making this possible, converting government buying into a cookie jar for greedy contractors, for example, with a “Share in Savings” program that allowed contractors to pay themselves with amounts they claimed to save the government.

"It's kind of like going into a used-car dealership and being too trusting," said Angela B. Styles, a corporate lawyer who served as President Bush's chief contracting official from 2001 to 2003. "I don't think you really want a partnership with a used-car dealer because you're probably not going to get the best car at the lowest price."

****

"You couldn't design a better system to make accountability impossible," said Daniel Guttman, a government contracting expert at Johns Hopkins University Center for the Study of American Government. "We simultaneously increased the incentive to get masses of contracts out the door and assured no one will look and see how the money is being spent."

Tom Davis defended Budd at the March hearing.

Budd defended herself ... in an e-mail released at a March 28 hearing by Waxman's committee. It was read by Rep. Davis....

In a report prepared by the Republican staff of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, investigators questioned Waxman's findings and defended Doan and the Sun contract. "There is no evidence the Administrator acted improperly with respect to the Sun Microsystems contract," the report said, adding that "many of the issues" had been resolved before Budd took over the contract.

Waxman responded that Doan's statements "appear to be misleading" based on the committee's review of the e-mails of her multiple contacts with Larry Allen.

The testimony of the two GSA employees, Butterfield and Caldwell, is evidence. Perhaps there was no more evidence because as long as Davis had been head of the Oversight Committee, there had been no investigation. Sun Microsystems also paid Davis and his pay-to-play politicians to hold back investigators.


SUN MICROSYSTEMS INC POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE, Tom Davis, $5,000 of $10,500.

DAVIS, THOMAS M III VIA TOM DAVIS FOR CONGRESS
10/21/1999 $500.00 20035262854
06/07/2000 $500.00 20035893423
07/18/2001 $1,000.00 22990161786
06/25/2002 $1,000.00 22991431733
09/19/2006 $2,000.00 26930426824

NATIONAL REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE
07/15/2003 $1,000.00 24990274948
NATIONAL REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE CONTRIBUTIONS
11/16/2001 $2,500.00 22990161785
NATIONAL REPUBLICAN SENATORIAL COMMITTEE
05/28/2003 $2,000.00 23991565976

WASHINGTON MANAGEMENT GROUP, Tom Davis, $1,750 of $11,200.00 Total Contributions

ALLEN, EDWARD L. MR. JR. ARLINGTON, VA 22207
WMG/ASSOC
DAVIS, THOMAS M III VIA TOM DAVIS FOR CONGRESS
06/16/2004 $500.00 24961800258
01/27/2006 $500.00 26940071388

CAGGIANO, PAUL J BETHESDA, MD 20814
WMP President
DAVIS, THOMAS M III VIA TOM DAVIS FOR CONGRESS
09/26/2000 $250.00 20036182097

DAVIS, THOMAS M III VIA TOM DAVIS FOR CONGRESS
12/15/2001 $500.00 22990118509

HARTWELL, STEPHEN MOUNT VERNON, VA 22121
WMG Principal
NATIONAL REPUBLICAN SENATORIAL COMMITTEE
02/14/2003 $7500.00 23020140686
10/28/2004 $200.00 24021041394

FAIRFAX COUNTY REPUBLICAN COMMITTEE (FEDERAL)
07/22/2004 $1,000.00 24962200931

This is a favorite Committee for Tom Davis; he has donated $58,000 from Tom
Davis for Congress to this Committee. Other than James Hyland, Davis's wife
Jeannemarie Devolites has received the most donations for an individual candidate from this Committee at almost $5,000.

HARTWELL, STEPHEN WASHINGTON, DC 20005
WMG/CHAIR
KYL, JON VIA JON KYL FOR U S SENATE
02/13/2006 $500.00 26020230294

SISTI, THOMAS KENSINGTON, MD 11570
WMG
FLYNN, JOHN THOMAS VIA JOHN THOMAS FLYNN FOR CONGRESS 03/01/2005 $250.00 25038771089

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

If all of that is true, thats pretty disturbing. But a quick check of opensecrets.org shows that Sun contributions are just a drop in the bucket to some other special interest donations that were sent to Davis. Last year alone, organized labor donated some $104,000 to that campaign, whereas Sun donated $2000 and Microsoft (their chief rival) donated $5000.

Thats not an insignificant amount of money I guess, but comparatively (and sadly) its a laughable amount when running against much greater donors that have a real effect on Davis legislation.

Beltway Progressive said...

Thanks for the comment. There has been an analysis of those donations, and it's not just any "organized labor:" It's the postal service and related unions. They paid Davis over a million dollars because, together with Tom DeLay, he used the postal reform initiative to blackmail the industry for ten years. He finally signed the bill after Henry Waxman won the chairmanship of Davis's Committee in November 2006 and before Waxman took the gavel in 2007. He knew the threats would no longer work when he was not Chair. The Committee rules had changed by Davis so the minority votes didn't count so there would be no effective objections to the subpeona for Teri Schaivo in Florida.

Beltway Progressive said...

I forgot to add that there's more money donated to Tom Davis then that amount above. According to the Post, Sun hired WMG (Washington Management Group) and they paid more to Tom Davis and when they hit the federal limits, they also paid his wife.

Also, the reason Doan keeps her job is because Davis is defending her, and not the federal employees she says are lying lazy employees with bad evaluations. She lied. The complaining employees have excellent evaluations. Why doesn't Davis defend them?

More on Davis
More on Doan
WASHINGTON MANAGEMENT GROUP, Tom Davis, $1,750 of $11,200.00 Total Contributions

ALLEN, EDWARD L. MR. JR. ARLINGTON, VA 22207
WMG/ASSOC
DAVIS, THOMAS M III VIA TOM DAVIS FOR CONGRESS
06/16/2004 $500.00 24961800258
01/27/2006 $500.00 26940071388

CAGGIANO, PAUL J BETHESDA, MD 20814
WMP President
DAVIS, THOMAS M III VIA TOM DAVIS FOR CONGRESS
09/26/2000 $250.00 20036182097

DAVIS, THOMAS M III VIA TOM DAVIS FOR CONGRESS
12/15/2001 $500.00 22990118509

HARTWELL, STEPHEN MOUNT VERNON, VA 22121
WMG Principal
NATIONAL REPUBLICAN SENATORIAL COMMITTEE
02/14/2003 $7500.00 23020140686
10/28/2004 $200.00 24021041394

FAIRFAX COUNTY REPUBLICAN COMMITTEE (FEDERAL)
07/22/2004 $1,000.00 24962200931
This is a favorite Committee for Tom Davis; he has donated $58,000 from Tom Davis for Congress to this Committee. Other than James Hyland, Davis's wife Jeannemarie Devolites has received the most donations for an individual candidate from this Committee at almost $5,000.

HARTWELL, STEPHEN WASHINGTON, DC 20005
WMG/CHAIR
KYL, JON VIA JON KYL FOR U S SENATE
02/13/2006 $500.00 26020230294

SISTI, THOMAS KENSINGTON, MD 11570
WMG
FLYNN, JOHN THOMAS VIA JOHN THOMAS FLYNN FOR CONGRESS 03/01/2005 $250.00 25038771089