Hearing Sought on Sects Ties Lawmakers Question Whether Church Benefited from Federal Defense Contracts, by Josh White, Austin American-Statesman, April 30, 2008

Hearing Sought on Sect's Ties
Lawmakers Question Whether Church Benefited from Federal Defense Contracts

By Josh White
Austin American-Statesman
April 30, 2008

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/04/30/0430contractor.html

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Defense Department has contracted with three companies that have close ties to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and some lawmakers want to know whether money from those deals supported the sect, whose compound was raided this month after allegations of child abuse.

Pentagon officials said the Air Force and the Defense Logistics Agency bought $1.7 million in airplane parts from the three companies. Some officials are raising questions about statements by an employee of one of the companies that much of that money went directly to the sect and its polygamist leader, Warren Jeffs.

Douglas C. Pizac
Photo by AP

Jeffs was convicted of rape in Utah last year for arranging an underage marriage. On April 3, Texas authorities raided the Yearning for Zion ranch, which was run by the polygamous group outside Eldorado, after a family violence center received a call from a female saying that she was a 16-year-old girl inside the compound whose 49-year-old husband beat and raped her. More than 400 children from the compound have been taken into state custody as authorities try to sort out what happened at the ranch.

The Pentagon said airplane parts were bought from 1998 to 2007 from Utah Tool & Die Inc., Western Precision Inc. and NewEra Manufacturing Inc., all companies with ties to the church. One of the contracts with NewEra Manufacturing in Las Vegas is still open, and a May delivery is scheduled for 800 Navy bearing hubs at a cost of $40,920, according to the Defense Department.

U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth, vice chairwoman of the Republican Conference, has asked the House Armed Services Committee to hold investigative hearings. She is worried that federal tax dollars may have been used to finance the sect's activities.

"While religious affiliation should certainly not be a determining factor, DoD has a responsibility to closely scrutinize any company under consideration before contracts are awarded," Granger wrote in an April 16 letter to the committee. "I am concerned that such scrutiny did not occur in this case, and that funds from this company may have been used to support the FLDS church's activities."

U.S. Rep. Kay Granger

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported this month that NewEra's president and chief executive is a leader of the church sect and a close associate of Jeffs' and that NewEra is the latest iteration of Western Precision, which was in Utah.

John Nielsen, who worked for Western Precision, said in an affidavit in a 2005 lawsuit that he and other members of the sect worked at the company for extremely low wages. He said tens of thousands of dollars of the company's earnings were sent each month to the church, the Star-Telegram reported.

NewEra officials declined to speak about the sect. They said that nothing about the contracts was improper and that the federal government had not been cheated.

"Our contracts are based on competition in the business world, and the business goes and pays its costs and its labor and works hard for the money," said Steve Barlow, NewEra's human resources manager. "If they choose us, it's because we make good parts, on time."

Defense officials said that nothing was wrong with awarding the contracts and that the department does not consider religious affiliation in selecting vendors.

Although illegal activity could lead to the termination of a contract, defense officials have found no criminal allegations against anyone affiliated with the companies and do not monitor a company's charitable donations.

"We are the world's largest and most complex organization, with a budget of nearly three-quarters of a trillion dollars," said Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon's press secretary. "It is extraordinarily difficult to monitor the behavior of every employee of every company with which we do business, but when a vendor is proven guilty of a criminal activity, we take prompt and appropriate action."