Official Brokered Lease Deal that Could Cost Taxpayers Billions 

(Washington, D.C.) – Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) has intensified its call for the Air Force to scrap its tanker lease plan as the highly anticipated guilty plea of the Air Force’s former No. 2 acquisition administrator became official yesterday.  Darleen Druyun admitted that she had discussed accepting a position at Boeing during her tenure at the Air Force.  Druyun left the government after negotiating a deal highly criticized by CAGW, in which the Air Force leased 100 Boeing 767s as refueling tankers.  This procurement, which is on hold as Pentagon, Securities and Exchange Commission, and criminal investigations are conducted, would cost an estimated $4.4 billion more than upgrading existing tankers or buying the planes outright.  After leaving the Air Force, Druyun went to work for Boeing, but was let go two months later after emails surfaced indicating a conflict of interest.

“The lease deal is expensive, unnecessary, budget busting and scandalous.  It should be tanked because it is simply a waste of money,” CAGW President Tom Schatz said, “This is the worst example of corporate welfare and back-room deal-making in recent memory.”

Ms. Druyun’s plea comes along with assurances that she will fully cooperate with prosecutors investigating the man who hired her, Boeing finance chief Michael Sears.  Sears was fired by the company last November and his dismissal came one week before the resignation of Boeing chairman and chief executive Phil Condit.  Boeing spokeswoman Deborah Bosick maintained the company is “aware of no facts that would support allegations of wrongdoing by other Boeing executives.”  As the captain of the Titanic said, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Meanwhile, Citizens Against Government Waste remains steadfast in opposition to the deal.

“It floors taxpayers to think that this plan still has a chance of surviving, even in a scaled-down version,” Schatz continued.  “It’s time to permanently trash this insider deal and move on with a new plan that makes military and economic sense.”

More than 7,500 members of CAGW’s lobbying arm, the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste, signed a Citizens Declaration against the lease deal, and another 3,500 members faxed letters of opposition to House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s (R-Ill.) office. The lease deal has also drawn criticism from Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) who has threatened to subpoena documents related to the matter, and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld who, in February, ordered evaluations by the Defense Policy Board and the Pentagon’s in-house watchdog.

Citizens Against Government Waste is the nation’s largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.