Science Applications International Corporation

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Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) was founded in 1969 by J. Robert Beyster "and a small group of scientists ... as a scientific consulting firm with a handful of government contracts for nuclear power and nuclear weapons effects study programs.... Over the years, the company has expanded into national and homeland security programs, non-nuclear energy studies, health care systems, environment-related businesses, information technologies, high-technology products, telecommunications, transportation and eSolutions services and products for commercial and government customers."[1]

In 1990 SAIC was indicted and pled guilty to 10 felony counts of fraud on a Superfund site, called “one of the largest (cases) of environmental fraud” in Los Angeles history. [2] SAIC had some 44,000 employees and took in $8 billion in 2006. SAIC "is larger than the departments of Labor, Energy, and Housing and Urban Development combined," reported Vanity Fair. [3]

In the fiscal year ending January 30, 2015, 97 percent of SAIC's total revenues were generated from the federal government, amounting to $3.77 billion.[1]

Federal Contracting, OSHA Violations, and Opposition to Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order

An SAIC executive sits on the board of the Professional Services Council (PSC), a trade association. PSC is a major opponent of the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order, an order issued by President Obama in 2014 that aims to ensure that federal contractors comply with federal wage laws, health and safety standards, and civil rights laws.[2]

An investigation by the Center for Media and Democracy of OSHA inspection records found that numerous corporations (and/or their subsidiaries)--including SAIC--whose executives sit on the board of PSC had been cited for serious and repeat violations of OSHA standards from 2013-2015 that would be reportable under the EO. A "serious" violation indicates "a substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result" from a hazard, a "willful" violation is cited when "evidence shows either an intentional violation of the Act or plain indifference to its requirements," and a "repeat" violation indicates the business "has been cited previously for a substantially similar condition."[3]

In the fiscal year ending January 30, 2015, 97 percent of SAIC's total revenues were generated from the federal government, amounting to $3.77 billion.[1] Its executive on the PSC Board of Directors is Senior Vice President Tom Eldridge.[4] As described below, between 2013-2015 SAIC or its subsidiary Beck Disaster Recovery Inc. were cited for 2 "Serious" OSHA violations and $10,000 in penalties.[5]

Fatal Drowning of SAIC Employee Working for U.S. Navy in Marine Mammal Training
On April 29, 2014, the San Diego Union Tribune reported, "A 29-year-old government contractor died Monday during a nighttime exercise with the U.S. Navy's marine mammal program in San Diego Bay." Coll Perske, an employee of Science Applications International Corp., was given CPR at the scene by paramedics and taken to UC San Diego Medical Center in Hillcrest, where he was pronounced dead. A Navy spokesman said the training exercise involved two boats and SAIC contractors. The team was practicing a skill called "swimmer interdiction," in which Navy dolphins and sea lions detect and mark an incoming swimmer with a claw-like device.[6]
On April 29, 2014, OSHA cited SAIC for 2 "Serious" violations and $10,000 in penalties. One citation was for exposing the trainer "to drowning hazards while swimming at night in areas containing underwater hazards including pier support pilings, where the employer failed to maintain contact with the deployed swimmer." SAIC was also cited for failing to provide a ring buoy and ladders.[7]
U.S. Department of Labor Demands Compensation for Overtime Violations, 2011
In 2011, SAIC subsidiary Beck Disaster Recovery Inc. agreed to pay more than $754,000 in overtime wages to 89 workers after an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor found that the company "had incorrectly classified them as exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act, resulting in a denial of full and fair compensation for all hours worked."[8] According to DOL, Beck "provides emergency preparedness and natural disaster response services to public and private sector organizations nationwide."[9] DOL found that "the violations were systemic throughout the company's offices across the United States."[10] SAIC acquired Beck Disaster Recovery in 2009 and though it was later spun off in a corporate reorganization, it was a subsidiary at the time it agreed to pay the DOL fine.[11]
The case would not trigger specific action under the Executive Order, as it was settled more than three years ago. It is included to give an indication of the company's lax compliance with other important workplace laws.

Related Articles: Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces

Danger Osha violators600px.jpg

Key Articles

PR Watch Series on OSHA Violators

Reports

Other Resources

Lost contract

In July 2006 the U.S. military "removed two firms from a psychological operations contract aimed at influencing international public opinion," reports the Washington Post. "The firms, plus a third company (SYColeman) that will retain the contract, spent the past year developing prototypes for radio and television spots intended for use in Iraq and in other nations... The TV and radio contract, originally worth up to $300 million over five years, had been held by three firms since last year: the Lincoln Group; San Diego-based Science Applications International Corp.; and Arlington-based SYColeman, a subsidiary of New York-based L-3 Communications Corp. ... 'We learned that working with three companies increases expenditures in both time and money and does not provide best value to the government," said Lt. Col. David Farlow, spokesman for the military's psychological operations unit. Lincoln Group spokesman Bill Dixon said in a statement yesterday that the firm 'continues to win contracts' for Pentagon propaganda, but 'because confidentiality is vital to this work, the firm will not comment on the details of any contracts.' " [4]

Iraq work

"SAIC executives have been involved at every stage ... of the war in Iraq," from pushing WMD claims to helping "investigate how American intelligence could have been so disastrously wrong," described Vanity Fair in its March 2007 issue. [5] The Center for Public Integrity summarized SAIC's Iraq work as "to provide experts and advisers on development of representative government in Iraq; restore and upgrade the country's broadcast media; and provide a group of Iraqi expatriates to assist coalition officials working in the country." [6]

Under "yet another no-bid contract," SAIC created the Iraqi Media Network, supposedly a "free and independent indigenous media network" that quickly became "a mouthpiece for the Pentagon." Eventually, "the network was turned over to Iraqi control. Today it is a tool of Iraq's Shiite majority and spews out virulently anti-American messages." Moreover, SAIC's work on the Iraqi Media Network was criticized by the Pentagon's Inspector General as having "widespread violations of normal contracting procedures." [7] [8]

Spinning Wikipedia

According to the WikiScanner program, which maps anonymous edits made on the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, people on SAIC computers have made hundreds of anonymous Wikipedia edits. They include, on the w:American Civil Liberties Union Wikipedia article:

  • Adding: "[T]he ACLU's real mission is to create a Eugenicist Communist society based on principles of Anarchy against the will of the American people"; [9]
  • Adding: "The ACLU is trying to destroy America," and listing five examples, including representing members of the "North American Man/Boy Love Association." [10]

And on the "w:Skynet (fictional)" Wikipedia article, removing several paragraphs under the "Trivia" section having to do with actual British military satellites named "Skynet," along with other examples of real Skynets (mostly computer-related). [11]

Cyberintelligence for hire

SAIC offers Open Source Intelligence Services for corporations in their brochure entitled Who’s saying and doing what online.[12]84k

This service is being offered in this fashion:
"Consider the risks. An angry customer’s chat room gripe or blog can damage your reputation. Accidental public access to sensitive information – from product plans to employee log-in codes – is commonplace. Threatened attacks against Web sites, employees, and facilities are frequently aired online. Employee personal histories and “dirty laundry” are often public, and damaging." [12]


Personnel

According to an August 16, 2003 report by Katrin Dauenhauer and Jim Lobe, SAIC's personnel include:

  • Christopher Ryan Henry, SAIC's corporate vice president for strategic assessment and development, who previously worked at the the Pentagon as deputy undersecretary of defense for policy, serving with Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith.
  • Retired Admiral William A. Owens, a former vice chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff "who also served as SAIC's president and CEO and is currently its vice chairman."
  • David Kay, the former UN weapons inspector who was hired by the Central Intelligence Agency in June 2003 to head the effort to track down Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. [13]
  • Former employee Ali Dabiri.

Board of Directors

See current director profiles for:

Former Directors

Also of interest, Robert Gates, ex-CIA director, is a former SAIC board member and a veteran of the Iran-Contra scandal, he is also on the board of VoteHere. [14]

SAIC companies

  • Includes:

Contact details

SAIC Headquarters
10260 Campus Point Dr.
San Diego, CA 92121
Web:http://www.saic.com

SourceWatch resources

External links

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Science Applications International Corporation, "Fiscal Year 2015 Annual Report," annual report, accessed January, 2016.
  2. ↑ President Barack Obama, "Executive Order --Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces," government document, July 31, 2014.
  3. ↑ Occupational Safety and Health Administration, "Inspection Documentation," government documentation, accessed October 2015.
  4. ↑ Professional Services Council, "Board of Directors and Executive Committee," organization website, accessed January 2016.
  5. ↑ Occupational Safety and Health Administration, "Inspection: 974744.015 - Science Applications International Corp.," inspection case record, accessed January, 2016.
  6. ↑ Steele, Jeanette, "Navy marine mammal worker dies: 29-year-old man died during nighttime exercises in San Diego Bay," The San Diego Tribune, April 29, 2014, accessed January, 2016.
  7. ↑ Occupational Safety and Health Administration, "Inspection: 974744.015 - Science Applications International Corp.," inspection case record, accessed January, 2016.
  8. ↑ United States Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, "Florida-based company with locations nationwide agrees to pay more than $754,000 in overtime back wages following US Labor Department investigation," WHD News Release, March 9, 2011, accessed January, 2016.
  9. ↑ United States Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, "Florida-based company with locations nationwide agrees to pay more than $754,000 in overtime back wages following US Labor Department investigation," WHD News Release, March 9, 2011, accessed January, 2016.
  10. ↑ United States Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, "Florida-based company with locations nationwide agrees to pay more than $754,000 in overtime back wages following US Labor Department investigation," WHD News Release, March 9, 2011, accessed January, 2016.
  11. ↑ Welsh, William, "SAIC snaps up R.W. Beck," Washington Technology, July 7, 2009, accessed January, 2016.
  12. ↑ "Who's saying and doing what online", SAIC Open Source Monitoring August 16, 2005.
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