RK ARCHIVE - $90 Million lost while Tom Davis protects Sun Microsystems

According to WaPo, On April 12, the U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Arkansas filed suit against Sun [Microsystems], alleging that the company violated the False Claims Act when it "made false statements to the government about its commercial sales practices and the discounts it offers to its commercial customers."

Hours later, a new contracting officer, Shana Budd, was assigned to replace Butterfield

Tom Davis had a critical role making this possible, converting government buying into a cookie jar for greedy contractors, for example, with a "Share in Savings" program that allowed contractors to pay themselves with amounts they claimed to save the government.

"It's kind of like going into a used-car dealership and being too trusting," said Angela B. Styles, a corporate lawyer who served as President Bush's chief contracting official from 2001 to 2003. "I don't think you really want a partnership with a used-car dealer because you're probably not going to get the best car at the lowest price."

The testimony of the two GSA employees, Butterfield and Caldwell, is evidence. Perhaps there was no more evidence because as long as Davis had been head of the Oversight Committee, there had been no investigation. Sun Microsystems also paid Davis and the pay-to-play politicians to hold back investigators.

SUN MICROSYSTEMS INC POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE, Tom Davis, $5,000 of $10,500.

WASHINGTON MANAGEMENT GROUP, Tom Davis, $1,750 of $11,200.00 Total Contributions

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Federal Times has more on Davis vs Waxman (Andrea Chamblee - 5/23/2007 2:23:20 PM)

http://federaltimes....

I'm willing to accept a certain amount of, I don't want to say `fraud,' but a certain degree of flexibility [from contractors].... [Waxman is] not, necessarily," Davis said in an interview.

Tom Davis sets up a straw man question here. The question is not whether overauditing paralyzes people to become afraid to make mistakes. It does. But Davis presided over 12 years of no auditing, which let criminals know they could operate in a Safe Zone at GSA they paid Davis and Jack Abramoff to set up for them.

Committee sources confirmed that contracting issues are on the top of their to-do list, increasing the probability of a political face-off between committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and ranking member Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., who hold sharply different views on how contractors should be regulated.
While Waxman wants to rein in contracting, Davis, who represents a portion of Northern Virginia that is home to some of the country's top defense contractors, wants to grant contractors more flexibility.
Contracting reform legislation introduced by Waxman - to increase competition for government contracts, and to set aside funds to train procurement officers to better oversee contractors - passed the House last month and is bogged down in the Senate. Rather than waiting for action on those general reform measures, Waxman will schedule new hearings, sources said, that will focus on specific contractors and examine why those who have failed in the past are awarded new contracts or allowed to continue work.
Some of Waxman's hearings have already begun this. A recent hearing examined why the General Services Administration renewed a contract with Sun Microsystems despite performance concerns. Another hearing examined the Homeland Security Department's management of Deepwater, the Coast Guard's modernization contract, and SBInet, the department's border security contract.

During the 2006 election cycle, Davis received contributions of more than $10,000 each from defense contractors Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman and $32,000 from contractor Argon ST Inc., all with facilities in Northern Virginia, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.