National World War II Memorial: Construction Contractor Selection

This letter responds to the U. S. Senate Committee on Armed Services request that GAO review the procedures used by the General Services Administration GSA in awarding the contract on behalf of the American Battle Monuments Commission ABMC to build the National World War II WWII Memorial on the Mall in Washington, D.C. Specifically, the committee wanted to know whether GSA followed proper procedures in awarding the construction contract to a joint venture whose majority participant is owned by a U.S. company whose parent, a German-based company, was recently convicted of an antitrust violation. On June 7, 2001, GSA awarded a 56-million contract to build the WWII Memorial to the TompkinsGrunley-Walsh Joint Venture. Tompkins, the majority participant in the joint venture, is owned by J.A. Jones Construction Company, which is owned by J.A. Jones, Inc., a U. S. subsidiary of Philipp Holzmann AG, a German-based company. In August 2000, Holzmann pled guilty in the United States to a criminal antitrust violation for bid rigging on U.S. Agency for International Development USAID construction projects in Egypt and was fined 30 million.