Letter to Sean O'Donnell, Acting Inspector General of the Department of Defense - Sen. Warren and Homeland Security Committee Chairman Thompson Call for Watchdog Investigation into Border Wall Cronyism

Letter

Dear Mr. O'Donnell:

We write today regarding the recent decision by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to
award a $569 million no-bid contract to the Montana-based company BFBC for "17.17 miles of
border wall design-build construction."

We urge you to conduct a thorough review of the
circumstances surrounding this award, and we urge that you examine whether there is pattern of
preferential treatment in the award of contracts to build the border wall. While there are
obviously far more effective ways to secure our borders than the construction of a wall, if the
Administration continues to move forward with this project, it is critical that expenditures for it
be free of abuse and waste.

The decision to award a no-bid contract to BFBC--whose parent firm, Barnard Construction, is
led by a reliable Republican campaign donor who has donated thousands of dollars to President
Trump's reelection campaign2--raises serious questions about both potential government waste
and the fairness of the procurement process. BFBC has so far received more than $1 billion of
taxpayer money to build the border wall. In this newest contract, USACE is paying $33 million
per mile of border wall--a price that is more than 50% higher than the $20 million per-mile
average reported in January. In light of this troubling information, we have numerous questions
about whether federal procurement law may have been subverted in order to reward a political
ally of the administration.

This recent contract appears to be just the latest in a series in which Republican donors have
been awarded highly lucrative contracts to build President Trump's border wall. Late last year,
the USACE awarded a $400 million contract to North Dakota-based company Fisher Sand and
Gravel (FSG), another reliable Republican Party donor. Several questions posed to the USACE
about this contract have gone unanswered, or addressed only incompletely.
We are pleased that your office has since initiated an audit of the solicitation and award of the FSG contract.
We note that, stunningly, on April 15, 2020, FSG was awarded $7.6 million to build 800 feet of
border wall, for a cost of about $50 million per mile, even though FSG is still under investigation
by your office.

Particularly now, as we must prioritize funding to save lives and to help the millions of
Americans who have suffered severe economic harms as a result of the coronavirus pandemic,
taxpayer funds must not be wasted, and Federal procurement processes must not favor campaign
donors or personal favorites of the President. When followed, Federal procurement and
contracting laws prevent corruption, ensuring that taxpayer funds are spent to hire contractors
that can do the job right, do it safely, and do it as inexpensively as possible. The Trump
Administration's decision to award an expensive, no-bid contract for hundreds of millions of
dollars to a company favored by the President calls into question the Administration's
compliance with Federal procurement laws and demands a thorough investigation.

In order to better understand the circumstances regarding the decision by Department of Defense
and USACE to award a no-bid contract to BFBC at what appears to be a highly inflated price, we
ask that you investigate this matter, alongside your review of the FSG contract. We also ask that
you examine whether there is a pattern of favoritism and subversion of federal procurement laws
and regulations in the awarding of border-wall related contracts.

Sincerely

Source