FDA Improperly Hired Agency Through Set-aside Workaround

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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was covered thoroughly today by the Washington Post for its improper procedure in hiring a PR firm to burnish its image.

By way of a rather convoluted path, Robert O’Hara from the Post pieced together how Qorvis Communications landed a $300,000 contract by using a no-bid rule giving an inside track to “minority, women-owned, veteran-owned, service-disabled veteran-owned and HUBZone companies” according to the Department of Health & Human Services site.

An FDA PR contractor Mildred Cooper contacted Don Goldberg, a crisis communications expert (and Damage Control 101 blogger) at Qorvis for council, who in turn tapped James Dunn at Red Team Consulting (incidently, a woman-owned business) for help pushing the contract through a minority-owned business, Alaska Newspapers Inc. (ANI).

It’s not terribly surprising considering the competition in Washington for contracts of this type, and that agencies as large as the FDA use multiple firms (Ogilvy has another chunk, for example). However, long story short, O’Harrow had a slew of emails from someone at the FDA who cared enough to risk leaking them.

Look for a lot of turnover in these types of contracts in 2009, regardless of who is in the White House.

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