Alaska Native Corporation, ASARS, Responds to SIGIR Audit.

GREENBELT, Md. -- Early last week the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) released an audit which identified Arctic Slope Airfield and Range Services (ASARS) as a contractor performing work under the Combined Joint Task Force Shield Program in Iraq.

ASARS is a U.S. Government contractor in Iraq that was originally awarded a design/build letter contract based on the company's first Rough Order of Magnitude proposal in the amount of $106M. The original proposal contained an estimate for the construction of a new training facility on an unspecified and unimproved site in Iraq. ASARS was able to pare down its original estimate to $64.8 million for all first-year requirements after the Government selected Taji, Iraq, as the training site, through innovative engineering practices that permitted ASARS to repair and renovate existing but damaged structures present on the newly selected site rather than building new facilities on a barren site. This price was later reduced to $59.5 million as the US Government and ASARS finalized the contract requirements.

Kevin Slattery, President of ASARS said, "For whatever reason, the SIGIR audit was able to perform only a superficial review. Its report included unsubstantiated findings based on missing US government records, and failed to appreciate the operating environment in the heart of a war zone."

Slattery further stated, "The SIGIR audit, while acknowledging the Government direction to use the Tadji site, has failed to consider the corresponding decrease in new construction requirements that was accompanied by ASARS's appropriately reduced proposed pricing."

"While ASARS has no responsibility for program property or equipment disposition subsequent to its turnover to the Government, ASARS properly provided all required equipment to US contracting representatives for further distribution. Furthermore, ASARS can absolutely attest to the fact that no waste, fraud, abuse, or mismanagement of US funds or resources occurred during ASARS's contract administration."

Mr. Slattery continued, "We certainly can attest that ASARS constructed the Taji site in accordance with the Government's negotiated requirements, the site was a fully functional training facility that was properly managed for the duration of the contract period, and all students assigned to the facility were competently trained. ASARS's construction, management, and training performance prompted US contracting representatives to dub the academy an 'Iraqi Security Training Center of Excellence.'"

The Chairman and CEO of ASRC Federal Holding, ASARS' parent company, Rich Ambrose said, "I am confident that the ASARS team did an excellent job for the U.S. and Iraqi Governments. ASARS has received nothing but praise from its clients for the superiority of the work the team did in Iraq."

ASARS provided all SIGIR-requested documents and further offered to make available a complete and comprehensive set of corresponding records that document negotiated costs of construction, costs of other performance, records of negotiations and pricing definitization, changes to the performance requirements and associated pricing, records of students trained, records of equipment purchased and turned over to the Government, as well as any other documentation relevant to the inquiry. Moreover, the SIGIR report failed to consider that a portion of the contract's documents were destroyed when a terrorist rocket directly hit the office of the cognizant Government contracting officer, killing two people and injuring four others, including the contracting officer himself, and destroying his office and its contents.

ASARS and ASRC Federal Holding are part of the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation family of companies.