House Committee to Hold Hearing on Army Contracting Scandal

Back in August, I wrote a post [2] on a WaPo article about George Raymond, a former Army official with the Communications-Electronic Command (CECOM), and allegations that Raymond steered government contracts to his friends and then broke ethics rules by taking a comfortable job in the contracting industry afterwards. The Post is now reporting [3] that the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee – which has been investigating [4] the matter since the story broke – recently requested all documents, emails, and material related to the $200 million worth of CECOM technology contracts that Raymond allegedly steered to friends.

In a Nov. 23 letter to Army Secretary John McHugh, the House oversight panel specifically asked for materials relating a $185 million BearingPoint contract that Raymond acted as a program manager for during his tenure with CECOM, and Raymond's subsequent employment with Computer Sciences Corp., now CSC. According to the Post, the investigation will lead to a hearing sometime in the near future and act as a springboard for a larger inquiry into contracting problems at the Pentagon.

With the Obama administration making contracting reform a major priority [5] of its first term, this move by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee makes sense. However, I hope that these hearings don't simply become another round of dog and pony shows on government contracting.

Image by Flickr user johnsolid [6] used under a Creative Commons license.