(Reuters) - A key lawmaker urged Congress on Wednesday to probe whether a program aimed at awarding no-bid federal contracts to Native-owned corporations in Alaska was especially vulnerable to fraud and abuse.
U.S. Congressman Ed Markey, ranking Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, called for the inquiry a day after a Native-owned company executive and three others were charged in an elaborate bribery-kickback scheme that steered a $780 million contract to a favored recipient.
The U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, where the four men were arrested, called it "one of the most brazen corruption schemes in the history of federal contracting."
The case "raises questions about whether there are adequate controls in place to prevent fraud and abuse ... and protect U.S. taxpayers and Alaska Native shareholders," Markey wrote in a letter to committee Chairman Doc Hastings seeking a hearing.
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