Jackie Speier: “In 1949 over disputes on land grants, the Congress decided to create what are called Alaska Native Corporations. There…”

“In 1949 over disputes on land grants, the Congress decided to create what are called Alaska Native Corporations. There are some 200 of them that exist today. When they started out, they received moneys that were small in nature, but nonetheless helpful. Over the course of decades, what has happened here is an abuse by our Federal employees by using this particular technique, contracting with the Alaska Native Corporation, in order not to competitively bid contracts. They are sole-source contracts. So as a result, by not competitively bidding these contracts, the taxpayers are the big losers. Let me give you just one example. There was a contract let to the Alaska Native subsidiary that shared the lead on a $1.1 billion contract to manage missile and weapons research in Huntsville, Alabama. Two other inexperienced subsidiaries received contracts without competition worth nearly a billion dollars to provide guards to Army bases. Now, this is pretty simple, colleagues. A billion dollar contract, you run it through the ANC. The result is you don't have to competitively bid it. And what happened here is the work was passed on to Wackenhut, and they overpaid by 25 percent on the contract compared with deals for the same work awarded through competitive bids, auditors later found. So here is a billion dollar contract; you run it through the ANC; you spend 25 percent more of taxpayer dollars. This is real money.…”