POGO's Updated Federal Contractor Misconduct Database: Lockheed Martin Leads In Contracts and Penalties

The Project On Government Oversight has updated its Federal Contractor Misconduct Database (FCMD) with a new top 100 ranking based on the fiscal year 2007 data of USASpending.gov. The update reveals that the same five contractors remain at the top of the ranking. Lockheed Martin still leads the pack, outpacing everyone else by almost $10 billion in contracts. Lockheed also has the most misconduct instances with 50 instances of civil, criminal, or administrative misconduct since 1995.

The top 100 contractors received over $257 billion in contracts in FY2007, a 14 percent increase over the previous year. This total represents over half of the $457 billion in contracts the government awarded that year. As of today, these 100 contractors have accumulated 673 misconduct instances and over $26 billion in monetary penalties since 1995.

POGO provides the FCMD as a free service to the public and to the government. The database documents the misconduct histories of the largest government contractors, including contract fraud and environmental, ethics, and labor violations. New additions to the top 100 include Hewlett-Packard, Sanofi-Aventis, and the University of Chicago.

Major contractors such as G4S/Wackenhut, Blackwater, Parsons, and Chevron missed the cut this time around, falling below the top 100 contract dollar amount threshold of $517 million. Others, such as Electronic Data Systems, Armor Holdings, and Stewart & Stevenson Services were acquired by other companies and are no longer listed as independent entities by USASpending. Halliburton fell out of the ranking after separating from KBR in 2007.

The contractors that have fallen out of the top 100 are still in the FCMD. They can be found by clicking on the links in the 2006 ranking posted on the Archive page, or by searching or sorting the data. Their names also appear in the "Contractor" pull down menu on the left margin.

With this update, the FCMD now includes information on 130 federal contractors and almost 900 resolved and pending misconduct instances. (Contractors not in the top 100 do not affect the totals that appear on the home page.)

"Last year, POGO was pleased when the government established a contractor misconduct database, but we are disappointed that it remains inaccessible to the public," said POGO investigator Neil Gordon. "With this most recent update, we hope we have improved the FCMD as a useful contractor transparency and accountability resource." POGO continues to urge the government to open its database to the public.