WASHINGTON \u2014 U.S. Reps. Duncan Hunter and Ted Budd are questioning the integrity and legitimacy of a Government Accountability Office report that found no wrongdoing in a U.S.-Kenya deal for 12 surveillance aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The deal has been hounded by controversy, largely driven by North Carolina lawmakers who allege the Air Force and L3 Technologies had an inappropriately close relationship and that a sole-source award to New York\u2019s L3 improperly overcharges Kenya and overlooks North Carolina manufacturer IOMAX.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a Sept. 19 letter to GAO chief Gene Dodaro, Budd, R-N.C., and Hunter, who is a California Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, call the GAO\u2019s report \u201cfundamentally flawed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have serious concerns regarding the integrity of the report and call into question the legitimacy of GAO\u2019s findings and review,\u201d the letter reads. \u201cWe do so based on the report\u2019s obvious failure to sufficiently examine relevant facts and occurrences surrounding the sale. This is especially troubling given GAO\u2019s obligation to serve as an independent and reliable auditor of the federal government.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They fault the probe for basing its findings on Air Force representations of interactions with Kenya\u2019s government without corroborating those representations with the Kenyan officials themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They also claim the agency for overlooked acquisition system shortcomings that allowed the Air Force to bypass an off-the-shelf option in favor of \u201ca platform that remains unproven in combat at significantly higher costs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The GAO defended its report in a statement Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe kept all of the requesters on this work informed of our scope and methodology during this effort and reviewed the documents the Kenyan government submitted,\u201d said GAO spokesman Charles Young. \u201cThis report was an audit of a how a US agency, in this case DOD, implemented the US foreign military sales program and so it was not necessary to speak with Kenyan government officials. We believe our work is accurate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
L3, following the release of the GAO report, said it was vindicated by GAO\u2019s \u201cfair decision.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Defense Department\u2019s inspector general is probing the matter, Lt. Gen Arnold Bunch, the top uniformed acquisition officer at the U.S. Air Force, confirmed Tuesday. He said the Air Force is cooperating with the DODIG, as it did with the GAO and lawmaker inquiries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo we are very open kimono with everything to be very transparent with what we\u2019re trying to do and to make sure that they get the information they need, because we need to make sure our business is clean and we\u2019re doing things the right way,\u201d Bunch said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said the GAO\u2019s report is \u201cgood news for us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Defense officials had no reason to believe Kenya made an improper selection in the sale, according to the GAO report released Sept. 5. The $418 million sale involved Air Tractor AT-802L and AT-504 trainer aircraft, with L3 as the prime contractor and systems integrator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The sale, announced by the State Department in January, is intended to assist Kenyan operations against the Somali militant group al-Shabaab and augment the African Union Mission in Somalia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The GAO report notes the American laws and policies that govern the foreign military sales program allow the DoD to enter into a contract for military equipment and services for resale to a foreign country and to use sole-source contracting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At a roundtable with Bunch, he said he was withholding judgement until all probes are complete but defended the sole-source procurements in foreign military sales. So long as the contractor can reasonably meet the foreign country\u2019s request and provide the requested capability, he said, \u201cthen we will side with the country, because they make those decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe company specifically asked for the contractor and the platform,\u201d Bunch said, noting that rules for foreign military sales and domestic procurement differ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a distinction there that hopefully you all can pick up on,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is no final agreement between the U.S. and Kenya yet, and it is up to Nairobi whether to proceed, Bunch said. The decision is said to hinge on the outcome of Kenya\u2019s elections in August, which were recently annulled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
U.S. Reps. Duncan Hunter and Ted Budd are questioning the integrity and legitimacy of a Government Accountability Office report that found no wrongdoing in a U.S.-Kenya deal for 12 surveillance aircraft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":33444,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":8,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[7,8],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3446,3384],"class_list":["post-21195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-air","category-congress"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"W3T6LCFAUZBRBIKQ6FMWSXNDH4","arc_canonical_url":"\/congress\/2017\/09\/20\/lawmakers-gao-report-on-us-kenya-aircraft-deal-fundamentally-flawed\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n