Uncle Sam Spends Billions With Local Companies

By BILLY HOUSE The Tampa Tribune

Published: Jul 5, 2007

WASHINGTON - From things that bloom to those that go boom, at least $3.8 billion in federal contracts have been awarded to private companies for work in the Tampa Bay area since 2005, and it's a source of local revenue that keeps growing.

Government contracts have gone out for everything from flowers to grenades. Uncle Sam has bought alarm systems, medical supplies, lamps, soft drinks and food, and paid for trailers, disaster-relief and construction work, transportation and rental space.

Those deals and the hundreds of billions of dollars in federal contracts across the nation each year could soon face scrutiny like never before - not just from federal regulators, but from ordinary citizens.

Under a new law, the Office of Management and Budget has a Jan. 1 deadline to launch a Google-like search engine and an easily accessible database that will allow online users to pore over the details of U.S. contracts, grants or other payments for free.

Making the big contracts available is just part of the mandate - the defense deals with Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, General Dynamics and Halliburton.

"The smaller, local contracts will also be things that people can get more information about," said Sean Moulton, a director of OMB Watch, a nonprofit Washington watchdog group.

Moulton said taxpayers have a right to know how their money is being spent. The federal search engine will help them raise questions to make sure they are getting value for their dollars, he said.

Among them, Moulton said: "Are there patterns in who gets contracts? Is it the same company over and over? Are there a lot of no-bid contracts awarded by the same government agency? If so, why?"

Spending Hits New High

Just last week, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform reported that federal procurement continued to increase in 2006, to a record $412.1 billion.

That was up from $384.2 billion in 2005 and more than double the $203.1 billion spent in 2000. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and homeland security concerns have driven much of this, analysts say.

The federal government spends more than 40 cents of every discretionary dollar on contracts with private companies.

The committee also reported that awards of no-bid and limited-competitive contracts are accelerating, and that federal auditors over the past six years have documented significant overcharges, wasteful spending or mismanagement.

The committee's chairman, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., was among lawmakers who pushed legislation last year to create a federal database on contracts as part of an effort to shed more light on such other things as grants and lawmakers' earmarks attached to spending bills.

A Web site from OMB Watch, www.FedSpending .org, may provide a glimpse of how the government search engine will work.

Data on that site show that the federal government has had at least $22.8 billion worth of contracts for products or services performed in Florida by private companies since 2005. About one-sixth of that, $3.8 billion, was in the Tampa Bay area.

Florida Ranks No. 5

Florida's slice of federal contracts ranked fifth nationally in 2005 at nearly 3.5 percent, trailing only Virginia, California, Texas and Maryland. Florida is the fourth most-populous state.

The site also shows that federal procurement in the Tampa Bay area, as defined by its five congressional districts, increased more than threefold between 2000 to 2005, from $553 million to $2.1 billion.

Not all of the contract data from 2006 have been posted. But the site lists at least $1.7 billion in contracts for work in the Tampa Bay area.

The OMB Watch site also allows citizens to call up the name and location of entities receiving federal money for work done in each congressional district, the amount provided, the agency providing the funding and other information dating from 2003.

For instance, the congressional district represented by Rep. C.W. Bill Young of Indian Shores tops Tampa Bay area districts in the value of federal contractor awards with $1.2 billion in 2005, the last year for which the site has complete data.

Young, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee until 2005 and now the top Republican on the defense appropriations subcommittee, represents a district where a number of major defense contractors have operations, including General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems, based in St. Petersburg, and Raytheon Co., which has plants in St. Petersburg and Largo.

Young's district ranks third out of 25 Florida congressional districts in the value of its federal contract awards and 72nd out of 435 districts nationwide.

Little Personal Influence

OMB Watch's Moulton said there is little evidence that lawmakers play a significant role in steering contracts into their districts. Young's spokesman, Harry Glenn, agrees, noting that contracts are usually awarded by competitive bidding.

He said Young "doesn't attempt to exert any influence or make any calls."

The district held by freshman Rep. Kathy Castor, D- Tampa, is ranked fourth in the state and 111th nationwide, with more than $700 million in federal contractor awards in 2005.

Other data are compiled to show which government agencies paid the most to private contractors in each district, the rank of companies by the values of their deals, and the percentage of contracts that were competitively bid.

Users of the Web site can learn, for example, that south Tampa grenade and munitions manufacturer DSE was listed as one of the area's top recipients of federal contracts in 2005. The company with its subsidiaries is listed as receiving more than $74.2 million in government contracts that year.

Tampa Bay Wholesale Foliage, based in Seffner, was ranked as one of the top contractors in 2005 that doesn't do work related to defense, disaster recovery or homeland security. The company, with $1.3 million in federal contracts, supplies flowers and other plants sold through the commissary at MacDill Air Force Base and at other military installations in Florida, Georgia and Alabama.

The soon-to-be-launched government Web site will provide users more avenues to investigate contracts and evaluate where their tax dollars are going - and its data will extend back a decade.

A Better Search Engine

The federal search engine will use a broader array of government databases. And it will be more timely, because the law requires that contract awards be posted on the site within 30 days of being assigned, compared with updates posted once every six months for FedSpending.org.

By 2009, the federal database will include subcontractors.

Philip Porter, an economics professor at the University of Florida, says government contracts can be viewed as a good thing in terms of local jobs and dollars. He also says there's no disputing that the needs of MacDill Air Force Base, for instance, have a great effect on the local economy.

But he said those benefits must be balanced with the realization that taxpayers are footing the costs. "Someone has to pay for these contracts."

And that's the point of the efforts to unleash the public to help do research on the volumes of records and other data on government contracting, those involved say.

"We need help doing oversight," said one of the Senate sponsors, Illinois Democrat Barack Obama, testifying last year about the transparency act. "This will empower citizens and organizations."

Review? 'Bring It On!'

In Tampa, DSE President Dae Shin and Don Woodham, owner of Tampa Bay Wholesale Foliage, say they have no problem with citizens sifting through details of their government contracts. Both say their contracts already are renewed based on reviews of their performance.

Said Woodham, "Bring it on!"

Shin's company, which has about 250 employees at its manufacturing plant on Westshore Boulevard, has made millions of armor-piercing grenades for grenade launchers in the past 27 years.

Shin says the 44 mm grenade he makes for the U.S. military is not something many other companies produce.

Woodham says his company, with five employees, has delivered flowers and other plants to MacDill's commissary for about 15 years and has since expanded its government contracts to stocking other commissaries in the region. He said the dollar figures on the contracts listed in government databases may be misleading because the money he makes depends on the flowers he sells.

"They're competitive contracts that do go out for bidding," he said. "We just have the best prices, the best products and the best distribution."

Reporter Billy House can be reached at (202) 662-7673 or bhouse@tampatrib.com.

BIGGEST IN THE BAY AREA

Here are the top federal contractors in the Tampa Bay area* that deliver products and services in areas such as defense, homeland security, construction and disaster recovery:

1. General Dynamics Corp.: $476.6 million

2. Raytheon Co.: $166.2 million

3. Clark Enterprises: $161.8 million

4. Phillips and Jordan Inc.: $161.4 million

5. L-3 Communications Holdings: $132.4 million

6. Honeywell Inc.: $128.9 million

7. CAE Corp.: $87.7 million

8. USA Environmental Inc.: $82.2 million

9. Safety Equipment Co.: $80.5 million

10. DSE Inc.: $74.2 million

* "Tampa Bay" is the five local congressional districts.

Rankings are based on 2005 contracts, the most recent available.

Source: FedSpending.org