fema suspends topoff, saic drops out of competition

from washington technology: The Federal Emergency Management Agency has suspended a procurement for the upcoming Top Officials (TopOff) 5 national disaster drill to investigate allegations of improprieties in the contracting process, said FEMA Administrator R. David Paulison.

Also today, Science Applications International Corp. said it has withdrawn its bid on the Topoff 5 contract and has put several employees on administrative leave while it conducts a review of the allegations.

“We are reviewing the situation but we withdrew our proposal because we want to assure the government of our intention to perform in a completely ethical manner,” SAIC said in a statement released by Laura Luke, spokeswoman.

flashback: saic investigated for conflict of interest in topoff5