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The government gravy train just keeps rolling for the contractor at the center of the massive CityTime payroll scandal.
Virginia-based Science Applications International Corp. won two more federal defense contracts yesterday, adding to its list of government projects that has grown steadily despite a widening federal and city probe in the Big Apple.
Early yesterday, SAIC announced it landed a coveted intel contract from the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency.
The deal was not touted by the Defense Department, and officials with DIA would not answer questions about it.
The company also would not say how many millions of dollars the contract is worth.
Then, after the close of business yesterday, the Pentagon announced SAIC had been awarded another $7.5 million contract for Navy training services.
“That’s part of the problem here,” said Nick Schwellenbach, director of investigations at the watchdog Project on Government Oversight.
“Even when contractors are engaged in misconduct, the government keeps awarding them contracts,” he said.
“Very rarely does the federal government exercise suspension against a major contractor even when they’ve been convicted and been involved in criminal activity.”
CityTime was supposed to be a $63 million project to automate the city’s payroll system and make it more efficient and less susceptible to abuse.
Instead, the project — run by SAIC — became a boondoggle that has cost taxpayers nearly $760 million due to fraud, kickbacks and conspiracy among those putting the system in place.
One SAIC exec has pleaded guilty and agreed to roll over on others implicated in the scandal.
And another SAIC exec has been indicted.
Eight other contractors on the project have also been indicted on federal charges.
Mayor Bloomberg has asked SAIC to reimburse the city $600 million, and his administration has threatened to sue the company.
Officials in Albany have said there is nearly no chance SAIC would be awarded state contracts in the foreseeable future.
And still the feds keep coughing up lucrative deals for the technology contractor.
Asked about the new contracts, company spokesman Vernon Guidry declined to comment.
Despite the CityTime scandal, SAIC’s stock price closed yesterday at $16.50, not far off its 52-week high of $17.65.
In the last two months, SAIC has won a host of other contracts from the federal government, including deals to provide military health services, training for combat troops before deployment and technology support for the General Services Administration.
On June 29, the State Department handed SAIC a deal that could yield up to $10 billion for international police services.
“There’s a steady stream of contract announcements every week from the federal government,” said Schwellenbach, “and SAIC gets a fair share of them.”