Former DARPA Director Regina Dugan:
Project on Government Oversight on conflict of interest issues at DARPA. Noteworthy quote:
Although he DoD IG did not “identify any contracts that DARPA personnel should not have awarded,” it found that “DARPA may not be able to justify that personnel adequately substantiated proposal selections” and that “contracting personnel increased DARPA’s contracting risks when issuing cost-reimbursement contracts.”
That statement misses the mark. The issue is not whether the awardees were qualified to do the work. I have no doubt they were. The issue is whether some awardees had an unfair advantage in the process by virtue of their prior relationship with the Program Manager or other personnel in the office. Here are the DoD Inspector General’s reports cited by POGO: one, two. Judge for yourself.