Administrator Kelly Loeffler Announces Full-Scale Audit of SBA 8(a) Program After DOJ Finds Over $550 Million in Contracts Linked to Bribery and Fraud Scheme

A USAID official and three government contractors pleaded guilty to a decade-long bribery scheme involving over $550 million in contracts, according to the Justice Department.

According to court documents, beginning in 2013, USAID contracting officer Roderick Watson agreed with corporate executive Darryl Britt to receive bribes in exchange for Watson’s influence to award contracts to a small business named Apprio and its subcontractor Vistant.

Watson received more than $1 million in bribes to steer no-bid contracts to Apprio and Vistant.

Wilson and Britt used the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) contracting program, which helps ‘socially and economically disadvantaged businesses’ bid on contracts, to make this massive scheme possible.

Per the DOJ:

Four men, including a government contracting officer for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and three owners and presidents of companies, have pleaded guilty for their roles in a decade-long bribery scheme involving at least 14 prime contracts worth over $550 million in U.S. taxpayer dollars.

• Roderick Watson, 57, of Woodstock, Maryland, who worked as a USAID contracting officer, pleaded guilty to bribery of a public official;
• Walter Barnes, 46, of Potomac, Maryland, who was the owner and president of PM Consulting Group LLC doing business as Vistant (Vistant), a certified small business under the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) 8(a) contracting program, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery of a public official and securities fraud;
• Darryl Britt, 64, of Myakka City, Florida, who was the owner and president of Apprio, Inc. (Apprio), a certified small business under the SBA 8(a) contracting program, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery of a public official; and
• Paul Young, 62, of Columbia, Maryland, who was the president of a subcontractor to Vistant and Apprio, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery of a public official.

On Friday, Kelly Loeffler, the head of the Small Business Administration announced the SBA will perform a full-scale audit of the 8(a) race-based contracting program.

Loeffler released this statement Friday.

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