Pentagon says IG investigation into Boeing tanker deal completed
Senior administration officials called to testify before Senate next week.
Several top Pentagon officials will testify Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee on a just-completed inspector general investigation into the Air Force's tainted deal with Boeing Co. to lease a fleet of KC-767 aerial refueling tankers.
Committee members requested the investigation last year after corruption was exposed in connection to the now-defunct deal. The lineup for the hearing includes acting Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, acting Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition Michael Wynne, acting Air Force Secretary Michael Dominguez, Pentagon Inspector General Joseph Schmitz and Deputy Inspector General Thomas Gimble, a committee aide said.
Air Force Chief of Staff John Jumper also might testify. Schmitz has not yet determined the official release date for the long-awaited report, but it is expected to coincide with the Tuesday hearing, sources said.
The Pentagon announced Wednesday that the inspector general's office had completed its investigation and copies of the report had been sent to Capitol Hill. The report makes several recommendations aimed at changing weapons-buying and leasing policies, as well as the service's management of major programs.
"Many of the issues raised in this report have already been identified and are being addressed," according to a Pentagon statement.
In the report, the inspector general criticizes more than a half-dozen top defense officials, including Jumper, Wynne, and his predecessor, Edward (Pete) Aldridge, a source said. Knight Ridder newspapers reported Thursday the officials were named in the report.
The completion of the report is the culmination of more than three years of government reviews and investigations into the $23.5 billion deal, considered the biggest procurement scandal in more than two decades. The lease deal ultimately led to the resignation of Air Force Secretary James Roche and the indictment of two top Boeing executives, Darleen Druyun and Michael Sears.
Druyun, a former acquisition official who left the Air Force for a lucrative job at Boeing, admitted to accepting Boeing's inflated prices for the tankers. Sears, former chief financial officer for Boeing, was sentenced in February to four months for violating conflict-of-interest laws. A Boeing spokesman had no comment on the report, saying he had not seen it.
The tanker investigation -- led in Congress by Senate Armed Services Airland Subcommittee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz. -- has spurred a movement on Capitol Hill to overhaul the Pentagon acquisition process.
The House and Senate Armed Services committees' reports on the fiscal 2006 defense authorization bill call on the Pentagon to make dramatic changes to the way it procures weapons systems. The Senate devotes more than 20 pages to the issue and concludes that the Pentagon lacks a solid organizational structure. The committee recommended a thorough review of the department's weapons-buying capabilities and offices.