New review board to combat naval contract fraud

Charges of alleged bribery of a public official in connection with a kickback scandal involving millions of dollars in Navy funds have prompted the creation of a contract review board.

After a recent indictment stemming from a $10 million Navy contract that involved allegations of bribery and kickbacks, the secretary of the Navy has put together a contract review board to prevent such incidents from happening again, according to GovernmentExecutive.com.

At an event held April 11, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said he will continue to focus on better cost control and contract performance and would not hesitate to dump any programs that are too costly, unnecessary or ineffective, according to the article.

The role of the new board will be "to investigate and recommend improvements in the contracting process to protect against [impropriety, kickbacks, bribery or fraud] occurrence in the future," Mabus said.