Transportation Dept. Targets Contracting Fraud Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta says the department will take steps to ban companies and individuals convicted of defrauding the federal government from future contracts. Mineta issued an order on suspension and debarment on June 5. Since then, one company has been permanently debarred from federal contracts and the inspector general has referred 22 more individuals and companies for suspension and debarment. “Anyone who cheats the American people on a transportation grant or contract will find the door to federal funds closed to them,” Mineta said. “Our first obligation to the taxpayers is to see that their transportation system is built on a foundation of care, quality, and integrity.” Mineta and Acting Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, who is also the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, met with senior DOT executives last month to outline new accountability measures. McNulty formed an interagency working group on procurement fraud following the Air Force contracting scandal, which was prosecuted by his office last year. The secretary’s directive establishes, for the first time, specific criteria to determine whether companies and individuals who have been indicted or convicted for a criminal offense should be suspended or debarred. He directed that such cases be decided within 45 days. Agencies of DOT must either initiate suspension or debarment proceedings or explicitly justify why the proceedings are not appropriate. DOT’s inspector general has brought a number of cases against contractors this fall. In October the owner of an Oklahoma construction firm, a disadvantaged business, pleaded guilty to acting as a front for another contractor. The department’s said suspension and debarment proceedings are pending. The owner of a Philadelphia demolition company pleaded guilty to falsifying documents indicating that his wife owned the business. A Massachusetts road construction company was charged in a November civil Complaint with defrauding the government by generating false billing records. The owner of a Pennsylvania asphalt contractor pleaded guilty in October to corruption in federally funded paving contracts