Blog: Dermot Cole
Alaska senators defend Native corporation contract preferences
Published Monday, May 18, 2009
Alaska's U.S. senators say they are concerned about a Senate investigation targeting Alaska Native contracting preferences.
Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich wrote to Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill about her request for information from 20 Native firms that have made use of the preferences championed by former Sen. Ted Stevens.
“Your request for information from a selected few of the Alaska Native Corporations (ANCs) in our home State of Alaska is of great concern to us,” the Alaska senators wrote.
“While we welcome fair and just oversight of the Native American 8(a) program to ensure its integrity, transparency and accountability, we are also concerned that ANCs will be inadvertently harmed.”
The Alaska senators said that the companies need more time than McCaskill has allowed them to answer a series of questions about their dealings.
Murkowski and Begich said they should be allowed about six weeks to respond. McCaskill had asked for details by May 29.
Murkowski and Begich said they invited McCaskill to visit Alaska and see "how vital ANCs are to Alaska's Native people," the senators said in a press release today.
There are no limits on the value of sole-source contracts for Alaska Native firms.
Last year, companies owned by Alaska Native firms had $5 billion in federal contracts, 10 times more than in 2000, Government Executive reported in March.
About two-thirds of the contracts were made without competitive bids, the publication said.
Murkowski and Begich said the bidding preferences granted by Congress are important in fulfilling the intent of the Alaska Native Land Claims Settlement Act.
"Alaska Native peoples are among the poorest in the United States, living in conditions only known in Third World countries, yet Alaska Native people are citizens of the United States," the Alaska senators said.
"In many Alaska Native villages, unemployment reaches 50 percent or more. The basic sanitation and infrastructure needs of Alaska Native villages are real and enormous."
This is McCaskill's letter http://mccaskill.senate.gov/pdf/2009-05-12Chenega.pdf
This is the letter from Murkowski and Begich http://murkowski.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Files.View&FileStore_id=1bc911d0-6eec-4310-9e05-143bbcdb3147
These are highlights from a 2007 GAO report on the Alaska preferences that called for more federal oversight http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d071251thigh.pdf
In March, the magazine Government Executive published a series of articles on the explosive growth in the value of no-bid contracts awarded through the federal program. http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0309/030609rb1.htm?oref=rellink
Alaskan Natives maybe among the poorest Americans,but what about Alaskan Native Corporations,when compared to other Alaskan Corporations.I'm all for Native Corp. getting their fair share ,but I don't believe in any corp. having an unfair advantage.
Affirmative Action is just wrong for all Americans in this day and age.
www.racismreview.com/blog/2009/04/27/
Senators Murkowski and Begich: Please invite various Members of the Senate to visit "rural" Alaska for a fact finding mission.
Besides the obvious problems of lack of infrastructure, health & safety, education and economic opportunity; Senators may see the pride of villages who's sons and daughters are serving our Nation in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Billions of Dollars for a foreign wars and aide, while investing nothing for the First Americans.
Begich doesn't have credibility, but rather credulity, defined as the ability to swallow any half-baked idea the National Democratic Machine comes up with.
if the native corperations are breaking any laws they need to be held accountable. what is fair for one is fair for all.
Preferences based on race are just morally wrong.
Unfortunately this well-intentioned practice has been abused, like all well-intentioned preferences mandated by the government. On a whole, it is good. I know first-hand how it has been abused, used by non-natives to gain an upper hand over other businesses by having natives as figure-heads, or native spouses put on the papers as a 51% owner just to get the preference. I think it needs strong scrutiny, and some modification.
What would be the arguments if the Corps where all white Americans? Raceism is not just limited to one side or the other,, its just wrong and needs to STOP...
Native Corps benefit from this program in the way that it was intended by creating jobs and performing the work. One bad apple is making it look bad for the whole barrel. People will overlook the fact that Native Corps perform the work successfully the other 99.9% of the time. Who cares that corporations in the south received billions of dollars in the form of bail outs from the government for doing a piss poor job, right? It isn't just Alaska Natives that get a preference to bid, all minority, women, disabled, veteran owned do as well.
Wow! This is something! I remember when
Tony Soprano: boss of the DiMeo family on T.V.
Nicholas "Little Nick" Corozzo, who authorities say was a one-time crony of notorious mob boss John Gotti, pleading not guilty to racketeering, extortion and murder charges.
John Gotti, from the once-mighty Gambino organized crime family.
Were All were getting “Preferred contracts”
Now we have Elected Officials, and Newspapers pushing for *“Preferred contracts* for Preferred-Groups in the North Country!
Maybe we can get some of the “Mob hit men, to Enforce the Preferred contracts!
Hum, let's see, non-competitive bids on cost plus contracts, and somehow this saves the Gov't money? I don't think so.
I'm glad these local corporations benefitted, but it isn't a reasonable business model in a capitalist system. The gig is finally up.
I lived and worked on a military base in Alaska where all the maintenance was done under one of these contracts. It was significantly worse quality, and cost more than the civil service system that had done the work for decades. The contractors spent a great portion of their time calculating hours spent on each job and scurrying about officiously delivering "bills" to the various entities whose parking lots they had plowed, or plumbing they had fixed. It was ridiculous.
the white man is the highest paid people of the native corporations. my native village corporation is koyitlotsina 50% native owned maybe fully native owned, but that says nothing for native employed, it's all white. the corp does bids all over the u.s. and even in offshore countries like costa rica. the shareholders are basically kept in the dark on this and the whole work force behind this is white. there are no natives taking flights down south to go to their job that they recieved through gifted bids. it's all white people working and the top guy running the show here in fairbanks recieves $250,000 a year for his job. me, being born after 1971 has no shares and recieves nothing, and everyone born before (a handful on the koyukuk river) recieved $1500 this year (highest in history of the corp). the white man running the corp recieves $1500 every other day.
i don't need nothing, i can get it on my own, but always hearing this native freebie crap is frusturating.
these bids will always be protected because it employs a vast number of whites, much more than the number of natives.
So many racist people with comments here and they know nothing about the subject, but are eager to inject their racist cr--. No need for affirmative action..with this kind of racist thinking...come on people...take off your rose-colored glasses.
Nativeson...which you are NOT!!! Didn't Bush follow his machine to the T!!! And our machine is representative of who we are, so, have yours and we will have ours. OH, we are having ours now!!! WHEEEEE!!! GO LIBERALS, GO LIBERALS.
As someone who works in Alaskan construction management and has years of journey-level trade experience, I can personally attest to the absolute "trainwreck" attributable to the contracting preference received by Native Corporations. The jobs are consistently mismanaged by unqualified individuals who lack proper experience, temperment, work ethic, and job knowledge. Year after year, job after job, the process that allows corporations the priviledge of securing work on projects beyond their ability or wherewithal is a horrible joke that serves only the interests of the Native Corporations and their "toady" managers. The customer suffers the most-the federal taxpayers who fund these debacles and end up with shoddy work, over budget and schedule.
bluecometrush-did you not see that part on my comment, "i do not get dividends due to being born after 1971",! typical of you to keep stating false statements over and over about another race. this allows you to hate with all the other haters that prefer to be ignorant.
koyitlotsina by far does not hand out fat yearly checks to natives from the villages it represents.
this thing is run by whites and employs whites, i'm not mad they can enjoy it. just stop this constant ignorant stigma towards natives and corporations.
the only way that the bid favoring stops is if the white man on the corporation side loses to the white man on the other side. now that's some true irony, but life is still good. stop hating!
Stevens would have prevented this witch hunt.
My work also has been directly tied into these Alaska Native contracts. Witch hunt? I respectfully disagree. This completely and totally needs to be investigated. The idea that these sole source, 8a set aside contracts are good for the tax payers money is a complete farce. It is time for all Americans, and yes, we all can fit under this umbrella to become smarter, wiser and better able to compete in a global market. I would completely understand if the money that is getting generated was acting as a hand up, instead of a hand out, but unfortunately, it would seem that the money is getting redistributed incorrectly. My experience has been, and I have a lot of experience in this matter, that many 8a or Alaska Native Corporations consistently mismanage or overcharge the American Tax payer again and again. Either they just pass on the work to other contracting companies and take a percent and justify the process as project management, or try to handle the work with an underexperineced workforce and do the contracts poorly. Not only is the process misguided, but it is truly hurting small business. I say bring on the investigation, talk to the people in the trenches, investigate all the back door dealings, and it will become apparent quickly that the concerns are valid. Wake up America, it is time to design and make a better mouse trap. We have it in us. Necessity is the mother of all invention. Take the money saved and start working on Social Security. I would like to get some of my money back that I am paying in.
I think what some people are failing to understand is that Alaska Native Corps represent entire communities. They share profits with entire communities and then reinvest in business. It has nothing to do with race, it has to do with the legal agreement of ANCSA when Alaska Natives became corporate shareholders. It is a business relationship.
I have worked on many jobs that were contracted by Native Corporations and have worked hard and earned good pay in the doing. It is a shame that this great opportunity that benefitted all Alaskans in so many ways will no doubt come to an end and fairly soon at that. This is a telegraphed punch and anyone who does not see this coming is willfully blind. Be smart and prepare.
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