GSA Defends Administrator in Hill Inquiry

The GSA also responded to a question about whether Doan had intervened in the suspension process involving five large government contractors who had paid $66 million to settle fraud allegations that they kept travel rebates that should have gone back to the GSA.

The Post reported that a GSA official had issued letters to the five firms asking them to explain why they should not be suspended or debarred. Under the process, companies can avoid being suspended from government work by accepting responsibility, paying restitution and putting in place remediation plans.

Doan said in the interview that she had not been briefed on what she viewed as an important issue. Doan wrote in a Nov. 10 e-mail to top GSA officials: "If these letters can be stopped until cooler heads can prevail and discuss what the appropriate mechanism is to obtain the information that CAO [chief acquisition officer] requires, that would be best."

The GSA said that Doan was told that a decision had already been made to debar the firms. The GSA said Doan requested a briefing and took no further action.

"It is a distortion to equate a desire to be informed promptly when such decisions are pending with interference in this process," the GSA said in its response to Waxman.

The companies eventually avoided suspension or debarment by agreeing to return travel rebates in the future.

In addition to Walsh, Doan has personally retained Washington lawyer Reginald J. Brown and media consultant Mark Corallo. A third lawyer for Doan, retired Maj. Gen. Michael J. Nardotti Jr., has requested that the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency open an investigation into whether the GSA inspector general's office leaked confidential information and documents.

A spokesman for the GSA's inspector general's office declined to comment yesterday.