Investigation into Conflicts of Interest at DARPA

According to this exclusive report from Wired.com, the Department of Defense’s Inspector General is looking into $1.7 million in contracts between the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Pentagon’s top research division, and RedXDefense a corporation owned in part by DARPA’s director, Regina Dugan.  According to Wired, RedXDefense is indebted to Dugan to the tune of $250,000.  

DARPA representatives claim that the investigation is routine and that RedXDefense won its contracts fair and square.  Dugan reportedly recused herself from all deliberations that resulted in the award of contracts to RedXDefense.  Still, Wired reports that the contracts were not reviewed by someone outside of DARPA so that decision-makers likely were still subject to Dugan’s influence.

In other news, Pentagon officials are denying rumors of a merger between DARPA and the Dharma Initiative.

[JT]