Another contract on which Lindley alleges Gallup defrauded the government was a contract with the Department of State’s U.S. Passport Agency.
“Gallup has provided services to the U.S. Passport Agency under a contract worth $2,700,000, and in May 2009 entered into negotiations with that agency for a five-year sole source contract worth $25,000,000,” Lindley says. “The contract required the contractor to conduct large nationwide surveys to be used in predicting the increase in the number of passport applications that would result from changes in border laws governing travel by United States citizens across the Mexican and Canadian borders. The Passport Agency asked Gallup to submit a justification for issuing a sole source contract, along with detailed pricing information that would be used to justify a contract price.”
Lindley alleges that, “under Abraham’s direction” during those negotiations, “Gallup submitted detailed budgets with vastly inflated hours.”
“For internal budgeting and compensation purposes, however, Abraham provided Gallup with realistic — and far lower — estimates of the hours required to complete the tasks,” Lindley adds in his complaint.
But an internal email from Passport Agency contracting officer La Shawn Clark shows an agency view that differs dramatically from the DOJ’s.
“Your team provided excellent customer service and cooperation,” Clark wrote to Abraham and fellow Gallup official Dawn Royal. “Also your team produced consistent satisfactory output and work on targeted deadlines. It was a pleasure working with the Gallup Government team.”
Other contracts Gallup completed for the federal government, and in which Lindley alleges malfeasance, include work the polling company did for the military and for the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA).
Despite Lindley’s allegations of wrongdoing, internal evaluations show that the Army Joint Contract Command’s contracting officials thought the pollster did “exemplary” work. “They have exceeded all government expectations,” that review reads in part. “This is a highly professional contractor with an impeccable reputation.”
On other Gallup military contracts, internal evaluations show similarly high praise.
An internal FEMA evaluation shows that the agency “couldn’t be more pleased with the work deliverables or qualifications of the team and the work they produced.”
On “cost control,” FEMA said Gallup is “very conscientious in how they expend government resources.”
“As a testament to Gallup’s cost control and effectiveness in maximizing resources, we were able to fund more work/deliverables beyond the original scope, to include developing and offering a train-the-trainer session, which produced an unquestionably better overall product for FEMA,” the internal FEMA review reads.
