By Emelie Rutherford
Senators on a key panel yesterday struggled to assess whether European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. (EADS) received an unfair advantage in the Air Force tanker competition after inadvertently viewing documents tied to Boeing‘s [BA] bid.
And while Air Force investigators sought to convince the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) that the document mix-up did not overtly skew the tanker contest in favor of EADS, six senators called on Pentagon Inspector General Gordon Heddell to investigate the matter.
“Today’s (SASC) hearing did not get at the core of the problem,” Boeing supporter Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) argued yesterday afternoon.
She and Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), and Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) sent Heddell a letter yesterday requesting an investigation into whether the November 2010 document mix-up impacted the fairness and lawfulness of the tanker competition.
Cantwell argued that because EADS saw Boeing’s interim Integrated Fleet Aerial Refueling Assessment (IFARA) score last year, the European company has an unfair competitive advantage. Air Force investigators at yesterday’s SASC hearing, though, said they believe the service responded properly after the document mix-up, by showing Boeing EADS IFARA data.
“From what I can see and based on the Air Force having taken that action, it appears that they have leveled the playing field,” said Maj. Gen. Wendy Masiello, program executive officer for combat and mission support in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition.
Air Force officials accidentally sent each of the tanker bidders’ interim IFARA data to the other competitor. The Pentagon investigated and determined only EADS viewed the IFARA data, regarding Boeing, for a short period of time, they said. The Air Force responded to the document mix-up by showing Boeing EADS’ IFARA.
SASC Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) chose to release yesterday a series of documents tied to the Pentagon and Air Force investigations into last November’s document disclosure. SASC Ranking Member John McCain (R-Ariz.) objected to the scheduling of yesterday’s hearing and the release of the documents so close to when the Air Force says it will choose a winner in the tanker contest.
“To the extent that November’s mistake could be argued to have an impact on the outcome, it seems to me to be an issue more appropriately addressed after the competition has run its course and a winner has been announced, not just weeks before the process draws to a conclusion,” McCain argued. He said the documents released yesterday could cause “further disruption to the competition.”
The senator, who uncovered illegal activities by Boeing and the Air Force in an early tanker lease effort, noted the $30 billion tanker program has been delayed for more than a decade.
“With that much at stake, hearings on this topic should be designed to allow the Air Force to speed the delivery of the tanker that it so badly needs in the most efficient, cost- effective manner possible,” McCain said.
Masiello told the SASC yesterday that the inadvertent document release did not constitute a violation of the Procurement Integrity Act. She reiterated the Air Force’s assertion that the IFARA data disclosed was not proprietary and there was no pricing data on the shared discs containing that data.
She said an EADS employee opened a one-page image of a spreadsheet containing Boeing’s IFARA data before closing the computer screen; she said the employee said it was viewed for 15 seconds, though a forensic investigation determined the file was open for roughly three minutes and the computer was on for 20 minutes. Boeing also realized it inadvertently received a disc with IFARA data about EADS but did not view the relevant file. Both companies notified the Air Force, which retrieved the discs containing the data the following day. The EADS employee who viewed the Boeing data was removed from the company’s tanker proposal team until after the Air Force shared the data with both companies, and the two Air Force personnel responsible for the disclosure also were reassigned, she said.
Levin said yesterday it was not clear if the Air Force attempt to level the playing field in the document mix-up, by sharing the same IFARA data with both companies, was successful.
He noted that the disclosure could be relevant because the Air Force did not show Boeing EADS’ IFARA data for 21 days after the initial mix-up