Brett Peak, co-chair of Northwest Valley Indivisible, a progressive grassroots group, recently expressed his concerns regarding a potential conflict of interest for Rep. Abe Hamadeh.
Mr. Peak is concerned because Rep. Hamadeh inserted language into the National Defense Authorization Act tasking TYR Tactical with producing a research report on next-generation body armor. The owner of TYR tactical, Jason Beck, is mayor of Peoria and had recently visited Rep. Hamadeh.
I spent over 30 years in the defense industry and can assure Mr. Peak that this is a standard federal government practice.
Research papers provided by industry subject matter experts help the federal government understand the state of the art in a given technology, as well as the possible advances that can be made. Very few submitted research papers result in a formal Request for Proposals to develop the technology (in this example tactical body armor).
If an RFP is issued, responses are open to all viable vendors/companies, and the contract award would be subject to Defense Federal Acquisition Regulations. DFARS requires that an independent source selection committee evaluate all submitted proposals for a formal selection.
Selection is a transparent process with defined criteria (cost, schedule, technical requirements, etc.) that must be addressed in the company proposals. On the rare occasion that a sole source contract is awarded, it must be proven that the awardee is the only company with the needed technology.
Rep Hamadeh doesn’t have a conflict of interest; nor does Mr. Beck.
Editor’s note: Laura Accordino is a retired program director. Please submit comments at yourvalley.net/letters or email them to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.
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