The Army responded by reaching out to a tiny firm in Delaware.

It was an unlikely choice for such a sensitive task. The year before, United Solutions and Services, known as US2, had just three employees and several small contracts for janitorial services and other work. It was based in a four-bedroom colonial, where the founder worked out of his living room.

But the firm had one quality the Army prized: It was co-owned by an Alaska native corporation (ANC) and therefore could receive federal contracts of any size without competition, under special set-aside exemptions granted by Congress to help impoverished Alaska natives.

On Sept. 2, 2008, US2 was granted a deal worth as much as $250 million - 3,000 times the $73,000 in revenue the firm claimed the year before. The contract enabled the Army to quickly fund a wide array of projects, including a global campaign to prevent sexual assault and harassment, without seeking outside bids.

US2 could not do the work by itself, though. With the Army's knowledge, the firm subcontracted the majority of it to more established companies, a Washington Post investigation has found.

Federal rules generally require prime contractors on set-aside deals to perform at least half of the work, something US2 did not do on more than $100 million worth of jobs, according to interviews with Army officials and an analysis of federal procurement data.

In response to The Post's findings, officials at the Department of the Interior, which managed the contract for the Army, said proper procedures were followed in the contract award. But they said in a statement that they have asked the department's inspector general to investigate.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/25/AR2010112503333.html?wpisrc=nl_headline