Defense Acquisition

More Data Needed on Individuals Convicted of Procurement-Related Crimes Gao ID: NSIAD-92-35 February 20, 1992

The Department of Justice and the Defense Department (DOD) work together investigating and prosecuting felonies arising from defense contracts. Individuals convicted of defense procurement-related crime can be debarred from defense contracting. The General Services Administration (GSA) places the names of debarred individuals on a list of persons excluded from all federal procurement. However, because the GSA list omits those individuals convicted of a defense procurement-related felony but, for some reason, not debarred by DOD, it is of limited usefulness to contractors and the government in preventing felons from doing defense-related work. GAO recommends that a monthly list be published of all individuals convicted of defense-related felonies and that this list be distributed to federal agencies and contractors involved in federal procurement.

GAO found that: (1) DOJ and DOD coordinated and collaborated in the investigation and prosecution of defense procurement-related felonies; (2) DOD investigators and DOJ provide DOD with the names of individuals convicted of defense procurement-related crimes; (3) DOD debars convicted individuals from defense contracting on a case-by-case basis, and provides GSA with the names of those convicted debarred individuals; (4) GSA places the names of individuals debarred from defense procurement-related employment on a public record of persons excluded from all federal procurement, but since the GSA list is not intended to be the data source on individuals prohibited from defense procurement-related employment, the list lacks the names of those individuals convicted of a defense procurement-related felony but not debarred by DOD; and (5) neither DOJ nor DOD published an official list of convicted felons that included the names of individuals convicted of a defense procurement-related felony but not debarred by DOD.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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