EDO Director To Resign Over Corruption Disclosure

On 25th July 2006 the Washington Post published an article by R. Jeffrey Smith and Renae Merlethat  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/24/AR2006072401232.html which exposed links between a purported independent defence think tank The Institute of Defense Analysis (IDA)[ http://www.ida.org/] that had been appointed as an advisor to a US Congress military procurement committee, and one of the Directors of EDO Corp.-former military commander Dennis C. Blair [ http://www.edocorp.com/DennisBlair.htm]. The newspaper report was based on evidence gathered by a non profit government corruption watchdog group called the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) which published a detailed report on the same day entitled '''Preying on The Taxpayer: The F22 Raptor''' (Link to POGO report [ http://www.pogo.org/p/defense/do-060701-f22a.html) which details the evidence of corruption and the links between IDA, EDO Corporation and Lockheed Martin.

The POGO report describes how IDA produced a study for the US Congress entitled '''F-22 A Multiyear Procurement Business Case Analysis''' that advised the US Government to continue production of the Lockheed Martin F22 Raptor which the US Government then did by a legislative amendment on the basis of the report's findings, which led to an extra cost of between US$10 -US$15 Billion to the US taxpayer. The multiyear procurement extended the production life of the Lockheed Martin F22 Raptor by 3 years overturning a previous decision to phase out the fighter plane because of safety and peformance problems and huge expense.

In Testimony of POGO's Danielle Brian before the Senate Armed Services Airland Subcommittee on the F-22A Multiyear Procurement Proposal that took place on 25th July 2006, Ms Brian said:

''POGO’s investigators began exploring how IDA could have found evidence to support a multiyear procurement, even though they acknowledged “this form of contracting bears significant risks.” What we found shocked us, as well as former high-level employees of IDA. The current President of IDA, Admiral Dennis C. Blair, also sits on the Board of an F-22A subcontractor named EDO Corporation, as well as another defense contractor. He and his family own 1,787 shares of stock and 30,000 stock options in EDO , according to documents EDO submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission. These shares and stock options are currently worth well over half a million dollars, should he choose to exercise those options. EDO has received contracts for almost $90 million from Lockheed Martin for supplying the AMRAAM vertical ejection launcher for the F-22A.''

''While Admiral Blair was not an author of the IDA report, we understand that because of IDA standard operating procedures, he likely would have reviewed this report before it was made available to the government. We do not know if Admiral Blair recused himself, or in any way affected the outcome of the IDA report. I would submit, however, that there is an appearance of a conflict of interest -- given his substantial personal financial interest and his fiduciary responsibility to EDO -- in the continued funding of the F-22A. This raises reasonable questions about the independence of IDA’s analysis.''  http://www.pogo.org/p/defense/dt-060701-f22a.html


On 27th July 2006 the Washington Post reported that Dennis C. Blair had told them in letters he would resign from the board of EDO Corporation 'as soon as possible'. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/26/AR2006072601708.html