The chairwoman of the House Oversight Committee and ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday sent a letter to defense contractor TransDigm Group [TDG] seeking repayment to the Defense Department for nearly $21 million in excess profits earned on certain contracts.
“The excess profits TransDigm received must be returned to taxpayers so these funds can be used to ensure our military has needed supplies, such as military equipment that DoD is transferring to the Ukrainian military to help them defend their country from Russian aggression,” Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) wrote to Kevin Stein, president and CEO of TransDigm.
Last December, the DoD Inspector General’s (IG) Office reported that TransDigm had earned $20.8 million more than it should have for 105 spare parts on 150 contracts with the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) between 2017 and 2019. The IG said the excess profits were earned on contracts where the company wasn’t required to provide certified cost data because the award values fell below the threshold required in the Truth in Negotiations Act.
The IG also said that it only reviewed a small percentage of TransDigm’s contracts, prompting Maloney and Grassley to highlight that the company’s excess profits “may only be the tip of the iceberg.”
Maloney’s committee followed up the IG report with a hearing in January to examine TransDigm’s pricing methods, accusing the company of “egregious price gouging.”
The IG recommended, and DoD concurred, that TransDigm should repay the government. Maloney and Grassley say that in January, DoD sent 31 letters to TransDigm for refunds and that as of March 17 hadn’t receive any payment.
The December 2021 IG report followed one by the audit agency in February 2019 that found that TransDigm had overbilled the DLA and Army $16 million on more than 100 contracts over two years beginning in January 2015. The company voluntarily repaid the government the $16 million.
The letter gives Stein until April 25 to respond whether his company will repay the $20.8 million, when a repayment will be made, and whether he will commit to not overcharging DoD in the future. If TransDigm declines to repay, Maloney and Grassley want the company to provide them with a searchable list of all the company’s DoD contracts since July 2019 and include data such as manufacturing cost per unit and contract price per unit, total contract value, whether an award was sole source, and whether the government requested certified or uncertified cost or pricing data.
TransDigm also supplies parts to the commercial aerospace industry.