WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) sent a letter to U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Principal Deputy Inspector General (IG) Glenn Fine requesting to join a letter sent by Members in the House of Representatives requesting an audit of TransDigm Group, Inc. (TransDigm) and its business model. The request specifically highlights audits of the company’s exclusive-dealer agreements with other entities in relation to the price of spare parts.

The original letter was led by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and co-signed by Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-Ga.), Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) and Jackie Speier (D-Calif.).

Grassley has been a watchdog against waste, fraud and abuse at the DoD for nearly four decades. Grassley’s extensive oversight work throughout his career has included a dogged pursuit for answers from the Pentagon over decades of wasteful spending and its inability to produce a clean financial audit.

Most recently, spurred by reports of TransDigm’s egregious price-gouging, Grassley sent a letter to former Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick M. Shanahan seeking information about how the DoD contracts with businesses and other entities in overpricing. Grassley also inquired about the DoD’s process to collect cost data from those entities and how Congress can help DoD in stopping price-gouging practices.

Earlier this year, Grassley pressed the DoD on its contracting practices in the Office of Net Assessment (ONA) after an audit released by the DoD Office of Inspector General showed significant failures in contract oversight and management. Grassley also pressed DoD on why it was purchasing cups that cost $1,280 each. Last year, Grassley sent a letter to Fine seeking answers on why the department was wasting $14,000 of taxpayer money on individual toilet seat covers. Grassley has also worked to hold the Defense Department accountable for its excessive and largely unaccounted for spending in Afghanistan, including a $43 million gas station.

Text of Grassley’s letter is available HERE and below. Text of Khanna’s letter is available HERE.

Dear Mr. Fine:

I wish to join as a co-requester on the requests made by Chairman Cummings, Subcommittee Chairman Lynch, Congresswoman Speier, and Congressman Khanna, in a letter to you dated June 6, 2019 regarding TransDigm Group, Inc. (TransDigm).  My staff has discussed this co-request with staff of Chairman Cummings, and he is amendable to me joining these requests.  I appreciate the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General taking the initiative to conduct an audit of TransDigm’s business model, including practices such as entering into exclusive-dealer agreements with other entities, and the affects it has on the price of spare parts.

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