GSA Leaders Pushed Sun Contract Despite Questions About Pricing GSA Administrator Lurita Doan and Federal Acquisition Service Commissioner Jim Williams pushed to renew a contract with Sun Microsystems although they knew GSA’s inspector general had concluded that Sun had overcharged the government. Williams said he and Doan agreed that “Sun was an important supplier for our customers” and that the company would take its business to other agencies if it lost its GSA schedule contract. In a letter replying to questions by Iowa Republican Sen. Charles Grassley, Williams said he discussed the Sun contract with Doan in two or three telephone calls in August, after he learned that the IG was considering referring the company to the Justice Department over allegations of fraud. “I believe I informed the administrator of the alleged violations by Sun,” he wrote. Williams’ recollection appears to contradict Doan’s statements in her March 13 letter to Sen. Grassley. She said she “was not briefed” about the potential charges against Sun and “had no knowledge” of contract negotiations with the company. Testifying before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee March 28, Doan said she did not consider her conversations with Williams to be briefings. Williams said a top Sun executive informed him that the company had fixed the problems identified by the inspector general. The IG found Sun had not complied with the price reduction clause in its contract and may have overcharged the government by as much as $77 million over five years. “I told [Doan] that I believed we should try to reach a fair and reasonable deal for the government, and she completely agreed with that approach,” Williams wrote. After two years of negotiations, GSA and Sun reached agreement on terms of a new contract, but only after three contracting officers refused to approve it. Government Reform Committee investigators said one contracting officer remembered that Williams told him, “Lurita wants this contract awarded.” Grassley did not ask Williams about that statement. Doan told the House committee she did not intervene in the negotiations, but, as head of the agency, had a right to be informed. Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman charged the contract was “a sweetheart deal for Sun that will cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars,” but Doan defended it as “a great deal for the American people.” (SAA, 4/6)