WASHINGTON - Sen. Chuck Grassley is asking the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration - NASA - to account for its failure to follow-up on pledges made to independent
reviewers about a contract for data management software that violated government procurement
procedures.
In a letter sent today to NASA headquarters, Grassley said that the agency made specific
commitments in a letter to the Government Accountability Office as part of its response to a bid
protest. These commitments led to the dismissal of that protest, but a review by the NASA
Office of the Inspector General found that NASA did not follow through. “NASA needs to
ensure that basic procurement principles are followed. NASA also needs to keep GAO informed
and alert them to the events that have transpired since the dismissal of the bid protest to ensure
that future responses to GAO are taken credibly," Grassley said.
