Feds Audit MZM Contract

2005-07-22
North County Times

Jul. 21--Federal officials said Wednesday that the Defense Contract Audit Agency has completed a review of a multimillion-dollar translation-services contract held by MZM Inc., a company whose relations with U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Escondido, are the target of a grand jury investigation.

The audit was requested last year by the Defense Contract Management Agency, said Ronald Savageau, a manager with the audit agency. The audit results will not be released until the agency has reviewed the report, he added.

Auditors reviewed a contract for "several million dollars" that MZM holds to provide overseas translation services to the U.S. Army, Savageau said.

"We were asked to look at the contract by the administrative contract officer to see if the billing made sense to us," Savageau said.

MZM officials did not return phone calls Wednesday.

News of the audit comes on the heels of an announcement in late June that the Pentagon had suspended a five-year, $250 million agreement with MZM through which the company has received more than $160 million in defense contracts in the last few years.

A separate audit on that deal conducted by the Defense Department's inspector general's office led the department to cancel the agreement to comply with new contracting rules, Pentagon officials said.

Pentagon officials have said the cancellation was unrelated to the investigation of Cunningham and MZM.

The results of the inspector general's audit also have yet to be released.