Criminology

Corruption has been highly pronounced in high places including official places. This has been practiced in search of business contracts. Corruption involves giving a token in order to maintain business relations. Concerned parties participate in such offenses denying the opportunity to other people. This is determined by the position held by someone in an influential office. This denotes ethical failure as some people are denied the opportunity to access the hijacked opportunity. Corruption is not a moral issue as the rightful people end up being sidelined. This sidelining comes in as a result of influence from top officials in a certain office and mostly those in the government ladder. Professional misconduct occurs in such scenario. This paper examines how corruption prevailed in issuing of contracts in the transportation sector. It examines Boeing Company and Lockheed Martin Corporation.

Boeing won the contract of upgrading C-130 in 2001. The manner in which Boeing got the contract was mischievous. Lockheed Martin Corporation was mandated to get the contract of upgrading C-130 transports which was aging. Lockheed was bitter upon losing the contract to Boeing. Lockheed had a hand in building C-130 having been involved in them for about 50 years. Lockheed was operating from its plant located at Marietta. Despite of been involved in building C-130, Lockheed lost the contract of upgrading them. This was unethical since the contract was offered to Boeing. It was realized that, it happened of the support Boeing obtained from an advocate who was powerful and influential. Darleen Druyun was the advocate used by Boeing to get the contract of upgrading C-130 transports. Darleen was so powerful since she served as an acquisition official at Pentagon. She was a top official in the acquisition ladder. Boeing had approached Darleen promising her an executive post. In response to the promise accorded to her by Boeing, she channeled most of the federal contracts to Boeing. She channeled multibillion contracts to Boeing. This includes the tanker program which was rated at around 20 billion. This did not make sense since it was done at the expense of taxpayer. Most of the federal jobs were channeled to certain individuals even if it was the cost of the tax payers. This portrayed corruption in high ranks (Melendez, 16). Darleen was sentenced for 9 months after pleading guilty. She was convicted to criminal conspiracy while in office. Lockheed did not cease at that, they went ahead to protest.

Boeing contracts have been challenged after Lockheed filed protests on them. The remedies being sought by Lockheed is unspecified. Lockheed has been silence over the matter after filing the protest. Lockheed has also been receiving contracts from the government with some of them rating billions of money. Transportation Security Administration which is also an agency of the government has also rendered contracts to Lockheed worthy billions of money. This denotes why the remedies put across by Lockheed is not specified.

The Department of Transportation was headed by a Democrat during the reign of President Bush. Norman Mineta served as the only Democrat in this cabinet. Transportation Security Administration was sandwiched in the Department of transportation headed by Mineta. Mineta was once associated with Lockheed. He served as a vice president of Lockheed. He has much influence to this company even after leaving. He holds huge stocks with Lockheed. This might be contracting with his opposition of racial profiling. Mineta took the position of commerce secretary in the reign of President Clinton after leaving Lockheed. There is couple of members from Lockheed who joined government position although not perceived as a contract catch up.

Amongst those from Lockheed include Jackson who was adopted in the Department of Transportation. The members of Lockheed have been adamant on what will happen to Jackson and Mineta. They have remained silent on the expectations they have for having their former staff being included in the transportation department. This has been directed to securing of contracts from the Department of Transportation. Lockheed benefited a lot from contracts awarded during the reign of Bush.

The Bush administration offered much contracts to Lockheed. This enabled Lockheed to earn billions of money. Lockheed has also benefited a lot from contracts from transportation. There are no claims which are associated with these contracts offered to Lockheed. The only affair which affects federal contracting is the one involving Druyun. The federal contracting has not been considered to be transparent since Druyun affair. It wrecked in to the mind of the people that anything can happen behind the doors. The scandal involving had much impact on security matter. Boeing has been viewed untrustworthy on security plan. The Boeing scandal has been referred to as a national disgrace by some members of the state.

There are worries on the aviation even after spending a lot of money to rehabilitate the aviation industry. Transportation Security Administration is believed to have spent a lot of tax payers money towards aviation security. Despite of having spent billions of dollars, the security is poor. The question remains to what is happening in this big industry. There are various agencies which have been set to look in the problem. Most agencies have associated ethical failure to government officials. Malfeasance has been considered as the main cause of failure in the Transportation Security Administration. The reports prepared by agencies such as GAO commend on criminal investigation. It has been seen as the fault of politicians who have the responsibility of controlling all this. Politicians let things happen without drawing the perception of the public. Politicians should be answerable for most of the corruption cases since they are either directly or indirectly involved. The Boeing scandal portrayed ethical failure since moral issues were sidelined by corruption. There are various measures which can be adopted to protect ethical failure.

It has been realized that most of the corruption deals are triggered by politicians. Politicians use their office to influence corrupt deals. Since it has been noticed that most failure comes from politicians, checks should be introduced to all government agencies. Reports prepared by selected agencies should be implemented by persecuting the concerned. This will prevent repeat of such ethical failure. Criminal investigations should be carried out to track those involved in corrupt deals.

Druyun affair has exposed the failure in federal contracting. It has been realized that, much problems are experienced in contracts. Influential people end up bribing in order to win contracts. This is ethical failure in its essence. There are measures which can be introduced to protect such ethical failure. Federal contracting should left in the hands of an independent body. This will ensure that, there is no external influence.

In conclusion, corruption in high places has been paramount due to the influence of certain people holding key position. Druyun was promised an executive position in order to help Boeing get contracts from the government. Lockheed held protest against the C-130 contract. This portrays ethical failure in high places.