The kind of companies that Justice SHOULD be going after.
Documents: Defense Contractor Mentioned Powerful Uncle Rep. Murtha in Business Dealings
By Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 11, 2009 12:38 PM
Robert C. Murtha Jr. for years has made a sizable living working with companies which rely on Pentagon contracts over which his uncle, Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), holds considerable sway.
He has maintained that his uncle played no role in his defense-related work, much of it secured without competition. Newly obtained documents, however, show Robert Murtha mentioning his influential family connection as leverage in his business dealings and holding unusual power in his dealings with the military. The documents add to mounting questions about Rep. Murtha, whose use of federal earmarks to help favored defense companies and his relationship with a former lobbying firm are under scrutiny by federal investigators. The congressman has used his control over Pentagon funds to build a hub of defense-related industry in his congressional district and has also won generous campaign donations from the companies.
Robert Murtha, an engineer, benefited from some of the defense contracts when companies brought him in to manage a small portion of the work. Even when the main contract shifted to a new company, he continued to be paid as part of that work. Some former business associates and employees told The Washington Post they thought the role played by Robert Murtha's companies was unnecessary.
Jeff Curtis, an engineer who worked for Robert Murtha's company in 2001, contacted The Post to say that he and some co-workers did virtually no work on a project to make kits to test for biological agents. Curtis said he remains "furious" that taxpayer dollars were wasted.
"I was always thinking, 'Why is the government paying this company?' " said Curtis, 29, now doing engineering work in North Carolina. "If it's fair to have this kind of no-bid work, I'll start a company and do it for half as much. Because this company didn't do anything."
In e-mails obtained by The Post, Robert Murtha told a business partner in 2001 that there were conditions for "keeping funds flowing." Part of the federal work, he said, must be channeled to Johnstown, Pa., his uncle's hometown.
"This has been a requirement for what I do to get dollars through," Robert Murtha wrote in an e-mail to a senior company official with National Micrographic Services Imaging Inc. of Silver Spring, the lead contractor on a project to produce biological weapons test kits.
Robert Murtha, 49, recently called it "unfortunate" that some critics assume his family ties led to government contracts.
"We do good work," he said. "If we're not doing our job well, we wouldn't be doing our job."
He did not respond to requests for comments on the e-mails or his dealings with contractors.
Rep. Murtha's office requested questions in writing but did not respond to them.
The documents obtained by The Post, including e-mails and invoices submitted by Robert Murtha, appear to contradict his assertions that his uncle played no role in his extensive Pentagon business.
He warned in an e-mail that failing to move work to Johnstown could jeopardize "financial rewards" for all parties. "Everyone on your side and on my side benefit from this, without having invested anything," he wrote.
Robert Murtha has worked on military projects since the late 1990s, his interests often intersecting with programs supported by his uncle. In recent years, Robert Murtha's company, Murtech Inc., earned about $4 million a year from the Army, including payments for warehousing materials in Glen Burnie under a non-competitive contract.
In recent months, the congressman's relationship with a Johnstown defense contracting firm that won tens of millions of dollars in Murtha-backed earmarks has been under scrutiny by federal investigators, who seized the firm's records in January.
Investigators also have seized records of a lobbying firm, PMA Group, that was run by a former House appropriations defense subcommittee aide and friend of Murtha's. Many defense firms that opened offices in Murtha's district also hired PMA as lobbyists.
Rep. Murtha, the powerful chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, repeatedly has defended his efforts to bring defense jobs to the economically depressed Johnstown area. Matthew Mazonkey, a Murtha spokesman, has said the congressman is proud of his family's military and government service.
The documents obtained by The Post date to 1999, as the Pentagon mounted an effort to bolster protection for soldiers from biological and chemical weapons. The Pentagon's Joint Program for Chemical and Biological Defense issued billions of dollars in research and equipment contracts.
Rep. Murtha strongly backed the effort, warning repeatedly that soldiers faced imminent threats from biological and chemical terrorism.
The defense giant Lockheed won an early contract to create hand-held field kits to detect agents such as anthrax and ricin. Resembling drugstore pregnancy tests, the kits featured biological detection material sealed in a plastic strip. The Pentagon wanted to distribute them broadly and store them for emergencies.
Lockheed, as prime contractor, relied on subcontractors to handle many project details. For logistics work, Lockheed subcontracted to Betac, where Robert Murtha worked.
The contract shifted to three companies over the years, but Robert Murtha moved with it. Although his companies held only a portion of the work, at times he gave business partners the impression that he controlled the entire contract, according to interviews and documents.
In 1999, the prime contract shifted from Lockheed to NMS. NMS subcontracted its logistics work to Arlington-based ACS Defense. Robert Murtha left Betac to become an ACS vice president.
For most of 2001, Jeff Curtis was an ACS employee who worked with Robert Murtha on the project. He said in an interview that he and other employees did little work, sometimes occupying their time re-doing technical drawings.
Although he worked for a subcontractor, Robert Murtha sometimes called the shots on larger decisions, documents and interviews show. In 2000, Robert Murtha began demanding that NMS move some of its assembly work to Johnstown, records show. NMS officials, who planned to do the work in Silver Spring, at first complained but eventually complied.
Robert Murtha repeatedly warned NMS and other partners that the Defense Department generally deferred to his judgment, documents show.
"These projects are given to us because of my technical and performance reputation," he wrote in a 2001 e-mail. "When I let things go a certain way, it is normally accepted."
The invoices provided to The Post show that the Pentagon's contracting official on the project, David Cullin, authorized payments to ACS Defense and simultaneously to Murtech, then a small consulting firm owned by Robert Murtha. In October 2000, NMS questioned a Murtech invoice and whether Cullin approved of the billings for what appeared to be duplicative supplies and services. In response, Cullin wrote to NMS, "Please expedite as much as possible" an $18,000 payment to Murtech.
ACS spokesman Ken Ericson said he could not explain Murtech's billings but said ACS will look into them. "ACS holds its employees to the highest ethical business behavior," he said in a statement.
Reached by phone, Cullin said he saw no evidence of wasteful project spending and did not recall approving Murtech's payments.
"I know Bob Murtha." Cullin said. "I found him in my time to be a very honorable man who's done very professional work in everything he has done."
NMS lost the test-kit contract in 2003, and a contract worth up to $200 million shifted to S.A. Scientific, a San Antonio company. That same year, Robert Murtha's company, Murtech, became a subcontractor.
Cullin, the former official overseeing Murtech's payments, is now a senior vice president of ICX Technologies; that company has used as its lobbyists the PMA Group, the former firm now under scrutiny for its ties to the congressman. Last year, ICX won a contract worth up to $700 million to develop biological test kits and protective gear. Murtech was brought in as a subcontractor. |
