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GSA removes MCI from Excluded Parties Listing System, making it eligible to receive federal government contracts
January 8, 2004
ASHBURN, Va. -- Today, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) announced it has lifted the proposed debarment of MCI and the company is again eligible to receive new government business and contract extensions.
The following statement should be attributed to Michael Capellas, MCI chairman and CEO:
"Over the past months, MCI and its employees have taken extensive steps to ensure the company operates with the utmost integrity. We have worked diligently to fulfill all of the ethics and internal controls criteria necessary to being a good federal government contractor.
We enhanced our corporate ethics program and accounting controls, hired a new Chief Ethics Officer and completed company-wide ethics training. Today's GSA decision is a sign of confidence in the new MCI. Our employees are grateful to be eligible for new government business and contract extensions again.
We will continue to provide our federal and state government customers with best-in-class service and support that they have come to expect from MCI."
In a separate release:
WASHINGTON -- A U.S. General Services Administration Suspension and Debarment Official today removed WorldCom from the Excluded Parties Listing System (EPLS) after finding that the telecommunications company had made sufficient management and oversight changes. Today's decision comes after an exhaustive review conducted by GSA that included input from the WorldCom's court-appointed Corporate Monitor, WorldCom's auditors, Deloitte & Touche and other outside experts. The review also included input, both supporting and opposing debarment, from Members of Congress including Senator Susan Collins, Congressman Tom Davis and Congressman John Sweeney. The decision to remove the company from the excluded parties list is based on the fact that MCI WorldCom has remedied the two key problems raised in the July 31, 2003, Notice of Proposed Debarment: accounting controls and business ethics.
The decision to terminate the debarment proceedings reflects WorldCom's improved system controls, a strong corporate financial organization, enhanced authority and staff as well as tangible positive results and improved business ethics.
Joseph A. Neurauter, GSA's Suspension and Debarment Official, determined that MCI had changed sufficiently to warrant treatment as a responsible federal contractor and can again compete for government contracts while adhering to stringent GSA reporting requirements for the next three years.
"I have concluded that the protection of the government's interest does not require the debarment of WorldCom. Accordingly, I have terminated the debarment proceedings against WorldCom. The termination is effective immediately," Neurauter said in a January 7, 2004, letter to Michael D. Capellas, CEO for WorldCom, Inc.
The Administrative Agreement detailing the reporting requirements runs for a term of three years and requires WorldCom to report to GSA regularly during this period and to report any changes in senior personnel, violations of ethics standards or other divergences from the company's action plans. Today's decision allows WorldCom to again compete for government contracts, but violation of the agreement's provisions would constitute a cause for WorldCom's debarment.
MCI
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