Air Force Scandal Prompts Procurement Review The Defense Department is conducting a broad review of its procurement policies as a result of the confession of a top Air Force official, Darleen Druyun, that she gave favorable treatment to Boeing Co. in several major contract awards. “We’ve got to sweep away any allegations of ethical misconduct,” Michael Wynne, acting undersecretary of defense for acquisition, logistics and technology, told reporters Nov. 9. He said the investigation will consider whether policy changes are needed to guard against such incidents in the future. Druyun admitted doing favors for Boeing after the company hired her daughter and son-in-law and while she was negotiating for a job with the contractor. She took a $250,000-a-year job with Boeing after she retired as the Air Force’s deputy assistant secretary for acquisition in 2002. The company fired her when it determined she had lied about her job negotiations. She was sentenced Oct. 1 to nine months in prison after she pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate conflict-of-interest laws. (SAA, 10/8) Boeing’s former chief financial officer, Michael Sears, who hired Druyun, pleaded guilty Nov. 15 to aiding and abetting her crime. In court documents, he said he had discussed the job negotiations with Boeing’s other three top executives. Sears has also been fired. He is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 21. Boeing said the company was not aware of any favorable treatment and no other executive had acted improperly. In her nine years in the Air Force job, officials said Druyun either awarded or participated in the award of nearly all of the service’s major contracts, wielding far more power than others in similar positions. “The purpose of this review is to provide advice on how [Druyun] accrued enough power” to get away with what she did, Wynne said, according to The Washington Post. “We are looking across the services to see if there are other people who accrued this type of power.” Air Force officials say they have abolished Druyun’s position and decentralized their decision-making procedures for major contracts. Her immediate superior, Assistant Secretary Marvin Sambur, and Air Force Secretary James Roche announced their resignations Nov. 16. A DOD spokesman said they were leaving voluntarily. The Defense Science Board, an outside advisory panel, will review military procurement practices. The Defense Contract Management Agency will review all of Druyun’s contract actions. The DOD inspector general is also investigating. The department asked the Government Accountability Office to handle protests from Boeing’s competitors about the tainted contracts. Normally those protests would first be heard by the Air Force before GAO got involved. Lockheed Martin Corp. and BAE Systems of Britain have filed protests over the award of a $4.2 billion contract to Boeing to upgrade C-130 transport planes. Druyun acknowledged in federal court that her decision on that contract was influenced by Boeing’s hiring of her relatives. One of Druyun’s final decisions was the award of a $23 billion tanker lease deal to Boeing at a time when she was negotiating to join the company. According to court documents, she said she signed off on an inflated price for the leases as what she called “a parting gift to Boeing.” Congress blocked the leases. The Air Force said that since 1997 Druyun was the source selection authority for 11 contracts totaling more than $33 billion. Boeing had all or part of the winning bids in five of the contracts. All of them will be reviewed.