Air Force moves to debar FedBid

The Air Force has suspended contracting with FedBid effective immediately and is moving to debar the reverse-auction company from future contracts.

The Air Force posted a notice on SAM.gov on Jan. 26 stating that FedBid was preliminarily judged “ineligible” for any new government contract awards based upon “conduct indicating a lack of business honesty or integrity.”

The suspension is to last indefinitely, pending an investigation to determine whether to debar FedBid, the Air Force notice stated.

The SAM.gov notice named FedBid officials Ali Saadat, FedBid’s founder and former CEO, and “Fredrick Richardson,” presumably a reference to former FedBid president Glenn Richardson, as being ineligible for contracts.

The notice does not name Joe Jordan, former white House procurement official who became chief executive of FedBid in January.

"While we are disappointed by this action, we have reached out to officials at the Air Force and are cooperating fully with their ongoing process,” Jordan said in a statement quoted by FederalTimes.

The suspension and debarment proceedings appear to be based on a Veterans Affairs Department inspector general report of September 2014 accusing senior VA procurement executive Susan Taylor, along with FedBid executives, of engaging in a series of improper actions to steer contracts to FedBid. The group also allegedly tried to discredit a VA official who had issued a moratorium on reverse auctions. Taylor resigned after the report’s release.

FedBid’s Jordan said in the statement that the company got a clean review from a third party for its actions, and has strengthened its ethics training and compliance.

The suspension and debarment might have been a surprise to some, possibly because of the complexity and detail of the allegations in the VA IG report.

In an October 2014 story headlined “Procurement fraud or not, here’s why FedBid won’t get debarred,” Washington Business Journal cited specialists who said it would be difficult to debar FedBid based solely on the VA IG report.

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