FAA reviews questionable contracts

WASHINGTON, Aug. 14 (UPI) -- The Federal Aviation Administration has begun a review of contracts with hundreds of companies after a $16 million contract was called into question.

The review was initiated after an employee of Crown Consulting Inc., called an FAA official asking for more money, The Washington Post reports.

The Washington firm denies any wrongdoing. Crown has 58 different contracts with the FAA totaling $135 million.

An Aug. 11 memo from Federal Aviation Administrator Marion C. Blakely to managers announced the review as part of change in how the FAA spends money.

Support services contracts like Crown's are supposed to save the government money.

However, the contracts are usually open-ended in terms of job, performance standards and dollar amount, leading to an ever evolving final contract number.

The final contract pay out is generally based solely on number of hours of service the contractor has put in.

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