http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20060331-9999-1m31bajagua.htmlGroup examines Cheney's role in Bajagua pact
Vice President Dick Cheney's office intervened to help break a stalemate over whether to issue a no-bid contract to a San Diego company that wanted to build a border sewage treatment project, according to a watchdog group report released yesterday.
The report by the Washington, D.C.-based Project on Government Oversight (POGO) said that until President Bush and Cheney were elected, the Department of Justice had opposed awarding the sole-source contract to Bajagua Project LLC.
Also opposed was the U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission, which is under the State Department, and is now working out final details of that contract.
But the Justice Department and the commission reversed their positions after a meeting was held at the direction of Cheney's office, according to an e-mail to POGO from Robert Ortega, a former acting commission director. Nick Schwellenbach, the report's author, said that meeting was held in 2003.
The San Diego Union-Tribune reported in February that Bajagua officials met twice with Cheney. At the time, the vice president's office declined comment, saying it “does not issue government contracts.” Bajagua investors and their family members gave $10,000 to the Bush-Cheney ticket in 2003.