House Oversight Chairman Questions $500 Million in IRS Tech Contracts

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is investigating whether an IRS employee in the agency's procurement office unfairly helped a small computer company win $500 million in government contracts in one year, according to an Associated Press report.

The AP obtained a letter from Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., to the Treasury Department saying he’d recently learned of a personal relationship between an IRS employee and Braulio Castillo, the owner of Signet Computers.

Signet won nearly $500 million in IRS contracts during 2012 but had never previously won any federal contracts. The report also noted that the company changed its name several times that year. 

“The fact that Signet Computers was able to secure federal contracts worth a half-billion dollars in a matter of months, despite having no track record of past performance, raises many questions,” Issa wrote.

“At best, this is a conflict of interest that runs afoul of . . . Federal Acquisition Regulation,” he wrote.

The full story is here.