By Marina Malenic
The CEO of a company vying to build a replacement fleet of aerial refueling tankers for the Air Force called the competition “fair” and said he was not immediately concerned about an incident that led to letters containing proprietary information being misdirected earlier this month.
The Air Force has handled their latest tanker acquisition effort in “the most above board, fair and open” manner possible, Sean O’Keefe, CEO of the North American unit of Airbus parent company EADS, told reporters yesterday. O’Keefe added that Air Force officials have said the misdirection of letters to EADS and rival Boeing [BA] was not a “compromising event.”
“We’ll see if that sustains itself,” O’Keefe said.
And while O’Keefe said he had “no objection” to the way the Air Force has handled the competition, his company executives have not yet determined whether they plan to protest the release of the information contained in the letters.
O’Keefe also said that EADS officials had not viewed the misdirected documents. Instead, they had “packed [the document] up and sent it back” after realizing that it was addressed to their rival.
Boeing spokesman Bill Barksdale declined to comment on the incident.
Meanwhile, Air Force spokesman Col. Les Codlick said the tanker contract award was again being postponed because certain aspects of the evaluation process were taking longer than expected. Earlier this fall, Air Force officials said the award would be announced sometime in November. Codlick said a decision would now be made “early next year.”
The delay, Codlick said, was unrelated to what he called the “clerical error” that led to the misdirected letters.
“Both offerors immediately recognized the error and contacted the Air Force contracting officers,” Codlick said yesterday.
Codlick declined to elaborate on exactly what technical data–including airplane specifications and pricing offers–were contained in the documents.
The service’s previous effort to purchase a tanker was canceled after the Government Accountability Office ruled that the contract was improperly awarded to EADS and then- partner Northrop Grumman [NOC]. Northrop Grumman dropped out of the contest last year. EADS and Boeing submitted new bids in July.