State Department calls arms dealers' disadvantaged status 'coding error'

[The Straight Story]

State Department calls arms dealers' disadvantaged status 'coding error'
By Elizabeth Newell [e-mail] April 4, 2008

The State Department believes the incorrect labeling of Miami-based Defense contractor AEY Inc. as a small disadvantaged business was a "coding error," a State spokesman said Thursday.

AEY, owned by 22-year-old Efraim Diveroli and under investigation for delivering faulty munitions to Afghan security forces, saw business boom after being designated a small disadvantaged business in mid-2006. Small Business Administration officials said, however, that AEY was never certified as such, Government Executive reported on Thursday.

Before the designation appeared in the General Services Administration's Federal Procurement Data System, AEY had done $8.14 million in business with the federal government. Since the small disadvantaged label was applied, AEY has earned more than $204 million in federal contracts.

The State Department awarded the first contract under which AEY was designated as small and disadvantaged on June 8, 2006. The $625,000 contract to "provide ballistic combat vests for Pakistan" was awarded through "full and open competition after exclusion of sources," meaning the contract was competed after being set aside for small businesses.

A State Department spokesman said the agency's Office of Acquisitions Management and Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization checked the Central Contractor Registry and the Small Business Administration's Dynamic Small Business Search -- both public databases -- and "found that AEY Inc. is not certified as an SDB nor are they designated as an SDB in the database profile."

"The department believes the designation in question is a coding error," the spokesman said. "Although the department awarded contracts to AEY Inc. no contract awards were based on the belief that they were a SDB."

http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=39714&dcn=todaysnews

[seemslikeadream]

1. Efraim was "a boy genius" who is "hard to control."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=125x199949

[annabanana]

2. su-u-u-u-ure it was.

(just a typo, , minor clerical error)

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

3. Who did he know?

[Arctic Dave]

4. It will be interesting to find out who this guy is related to.

[jody]

6. Or who is his Godfather? n/t

[jody]

5. Someone might have taken a bribe to code Diveroli's firm as 8A. n/t