IBM Contract Suspension Lifted By EPA

Here is the latest from the AP on Google News (Thanks Jim Anderton!):

WASHINGTON (AP) — IBM on Friday said the Environmental Protection Agency has lifted a week-old ban that prevented the company from getting new government contracts.

The ban stemmed from an $84 million EPA contract the company lost last year and is protesting. Under a reciprocal agreement among federal agencies, when one issues a ban, the others follow it.

International Business Machines Corp. said it is continuing to cooperate with the EPA and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, which served grand jury subpoenas seeking documents and testimony relating to the contract.

The EPA's decision likely means the incident being investigated is isolated, and that the agency acted so as not to "adversely affect a whole multinational corporation," said Ray Bjorklund, a senior vice president at market research firm Federal Sources Inc.

If the company being probed was smaller and the potential violations touched most of its officials and employees, the government would have been less inclined to lift such a ban, Bjorklund said.

IBM spokesman Fred McNeese declined to comment beyond the material in the company's press release. The EPA did not immediately have any comment.

IBM's federal contracts last year amounted to at least $1.3 billion, roughly 1 percent of its revenue.