Donaldson Enterprises, Inc. was apparently working under a $150,000 contract from the Treasury Department for “destruction services” involving seized fireworks at the time of Friday’s explosion in a Waikele ammunition tunnel that killed five people.
Donaldson’s contract was a subcontract from a larger $25.9 million prime contract awarded to VSE Corporation for “management storage and disposition of seized forfeited” property. VSE won the prime award on September 28, 2010. The Donaldson subcontract was dated November 10, 2010.
VSE is a publicly traded corporation based in Alexandria, Virginia, with about 2,900 full time employees, according to summary data from Yahoo Finance. The company was founded in 1959.
VSE Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provide logistics, engineering, legacy equipment sustainment, information technology (IT), construction management, and consulting services in the United States. Its Federal Group offers legacy equipment sustainment, engineering, technical, management, integrated logistics support, and information technology services to U.S. military branches and other government agencies.
Last year, VSE bought Akimeka LLC, a Native Hawaiian health technology business that had grown rapidly on the basis of extensive federal contracts.
On Sunday, a story on the investment web site, Seeking Alpha, recommended VSE as “a good buy at current price.”
A quick search did not turn up any news reports linking the five deaths to a VSE contract.
The web site, USASpending.gov, lists Donaldson Enterprises as a participant in the 8(a) Program, which gives certain contract preferences to minority or disadvantaged businesses.
8(a) Program Participant, Self-Certified Small Disadvantaged Business, Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) Firm, Small Disadvantaged Business, Woman Owned Business, Minority Owned Business, Contracts, Asian-Pacific American Owned Business, For Profit Organization, Service Provider, Architecture and Engineering (A&E)
I went looking for the contract after seeing a story yesterdayin the Star-Advertiser. The story referenced available online data in trying to identify the contract under which the fireworks were being stored. I was going to give them credit for the initiative, but then noted the story did not carry a byline, and it’s impossible to tell whether that little bit of extra work was done by the S-A or perhaps AP.
In any case, story noted the city had denied any contract, and no contract was found in state procurement office listings.
It took only one further step to turn up the VSE contract and subaward to Donaldson.
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The Akimeka, LLC, link is an interesting one.
This is the entity that has, among other things, been managing the State’s Wireless Enhanced 911 Fund, the never audited (by the State Auditor) slush fund through which monthly surcharges paid by cell phone users are used to subsidize county call centers, stuff Hawaiian Telcom coffers, and facilitate “the spend because we have, not because we need” mentality so often found in the public sector.
The Governor and the Legislature are only too happy to look the other way because they regularly raid “excess” funds to balance the budget and then pat themselves on the back for “not raising taxes.”
What a complete scam. Note, however, I’m not suggesting that Akimeka has done or is doing anything illegal. They’re just feeding at the trough, getting “theirs,” like VSE.