Alaskan Tribes Score No-Bid Bonanza Sen. Ted Stevens under scrutiny for shady contracts By Dustin Lushing Posted Jun 19, 2007 6:52 AM CDT Copied Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska gestures during an interview with The Associated Press, Thursday, April 12,2007, in his office on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke) (Associated Press) Alaskan tribes are so successful in securing no-bid government contracts, they're spurring a federal investigation into conduct by Alaskan senator Ted Stevens, reports Salon. In 1986, Stevens pushed through a law that gave Alaskan companies "small business" preferences—even if they belong to a multi-billion dollar parent corporation and employ no natives. The contracts have grown five-fold during the Bush administration, to more than a billion. This spring, an Eskimo firm based 180 miles north of the Arctic Circle won a no-bid contract to provide meals to anti-cocaine enforcers in Bolivia, costing US taxpayers $1M more a year than the Bolivian firm that preceded it. Read These Next Bodies found at lifetime felon's former home. Olivia Nuzzi, Vanity Fair to part. Ex-DEA agent allegedly used his money-laundering expertise for bad. Netflix plan to buy Warner Bros. isn't sitting well in Hollywood. Report an error