CACI predicts '05 growth

CACI International Inc. grew significantly in the company's fiscal 2004, which ended June 30. Now company officials have their sights set on more growth in its fiscal 2005, despite allegations that the company supplied prison interrogators in Iraq under an information technology contract.

That issue has become prominent in the public eye because of the abuses of inmates at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. CACI officials say their internal investigation has found no credible or tangible evidence that company personnel were involved in the abuses.

However, in more wonkish circles, CACI has become something of a poster child for contract abuse. Deidre Lee, director of procurement and acquisition policy at the Defense Department, uses the interrogators -- whom CACI supplied on an IT contract through the Interior Department -- as an example of the kind of lax approach to contracting that DOD and the General Services Administration are targeting in a new program called "Get It Right."

Nonetheless, the company's financial results for the year showed strong growth. The company's revenues were up 36 percent over the previous year, from $843.1 million to $1.146 billion. Net income rose by 42 percent, from $44.7 million to $63.7 million, according to the company's annual report.

Officials attribute much of the increase to growth in the firm's systems integration, engineering services and knowledge management offerings.

CACI officials also cited four acquisitions, including the purchase of the Defense and Intelligence Group of American Management Systems Inc., as accounting for some growth and poising the company for continued expansion.

Officials project that in fiscal 2005, revenue will be between $1.5 billion and 1.55 billion, and that net income will grow to between $76.6 million and $79.6 million.

Ken Johnson, CACI's president of U.S. operations, said during a conference call detailing the report that the upcoming presidential election will not affect the projections.

"No one sees the war on terrorism ending anytime soon," he said. "We don't believe that either the re-election of the president or a change in administration in the White House will have an effect on our business."