Washington, D.C. - Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today applauded the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) reaffirmation of an earlier recommendation that the Air Force reopen the bidding for a $15 billion rescue helicopter contract.

“This wasteful government contracting is inexcusable.  The Air Force must be held accountable for the most effective use of the taxpayers’ money and do what it failed to do months ago by transparently reopening the entire proposal,” CAGW President Tom Schatz said. 

In November 2005, three companies – Boeing, Sikorsky, and Lockheed Martin – responded to the Air Force’s request for proposal (RFP) for a contract for the new Combat Search and Rescue-X (CSAR-X) helicopter.  In November 2006, the Air Force awarded the contract to Boeing.  Many were puzzled by the decision considering that the other bids were technologically comparable, and Lockheed’s was $3 billion less than Boeing’s.  In addition, Boeing offered Vietnam-era Chinook helicopters with two rotors while the two other companies offered newer models with single rotors. 

Sikorsky and Lockheed Martin protested the contract award and on February 26, 2007, GAO released its response.  The decision read “an agency may not announce in the solicitation that it will use one evaluation plan and then follow another. … we find that the Air Force’s evaluation of O&S [operation and support] costs was inconsistent with the RFP.” 

Comments from Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne seemed to indicate the service is committed to the Boeing helicopter by calling for a “narrow” interpretation of the February GAO decision.  The Air Force agreed to change its evaluation scheme, limited the basis on which contractors could revise their bids.  Lockheed and Sikorsky protested again and GAO ruled in their favor on August 30, saying that when “an agency materially changes the solicitation’s evaluation scheme, offerors must be given a reasonable opportunity to respond to the revised evaluation scheme.”  GAO also recommended that the Air Force terminate its contract with Boeing and reimburse Lockheed’s and Sikorsky’s legal costs if Boeing’s new proposal does not offer the best value.

This battle is eerily reminiscent of another infamous Boeing-Air Force deal.  At a cost of $23.5 billion, the Air Force planned to lease 100 of Boeing’s 767 commercial airliners with the taxpayers paying for their conversion to military refueling tankers.  Government watchdogs found that the cost of leasing would be substantially higher than either upgrading the existing tankers or purchasing the 767s outright and that the lease deal violated federal contracting and procurement rules.  An Air Force official was found to have inflated the price in exchange for an executive job at Boeing and was sentenced to nine months in prison.  After pressure from groups like CAGW, Congress eventually barred the deal.  The CSAR-X is the first large contract following the tanker lease debacle.

“For the sake of the taxpayers and military personnel the Air Force should quickly follow GAO’s decision and re-bid the contract to determine the best company to build the CSAR-X.  Failing to do so could indicate a bias toward Boeing at the highest levels of the Air Force and diminish the importance of appeals in the procurement process,” concluded Schatz. 

Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.