Opinion ID: 171442
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Investigation and May 2, 2000, Certification

Text: On April 19, 2000, a federal investigator from the Army's Criminal Investigation Command (CID), Kirby Rogers, met with Mr. Birx, the Director of the PSL, and Barbara Pritchard, NMSU's contract administrator. Mr. Rogers informed Mr. Birx and Ms. Pritchard of the statutory criteria governing eligibility for qualifying as a minority institution under the DoD set-aside program. Mr. Rogers also emphasized the apparent difference between this statutory criteria and that used by the DoE to furnish its minority-institution lists. In response, Mr. Birx acknowledged that he learned through recent conversations with Miriam Meyer that NMSU has not tracked low-income individuals (Hispanic) who are first generation college students. App. at 813. And, according to Mr. Rogers's report, Mr. Birx further admitted that the evidence presented to him `raised significant doubts (in his mind) that NMSU correctly certified itself as a minority institution.' Id. On May 2, 2000, less than two weeks after the meeting, Ms. Pritchard sent a letter to a DoD contracting officer certifying NMSU's status as a minority institution. The May 2, 2000, letter averred that we were notified of the possible difference in eligibility criteria between the DoE's and the DoD's programs. App. at 818. Ms. Pritchard then certified that NMSU has qualified for Minority Institution status under 48 CFR Chapter 2, Part 226.70 and 34 CFR 607.2 through 607.5 and has been placed on the Department of Education List of Title III eligible institutions for FY 1999. Id. The certification did not identify or discuss the statutory provisions governing the definition of a minority institution for purposes of the DoD set-aside program. On February 1, 2002, the U.S. Army's Procurement Fraud Division sent a letter to NMSU. It asserted that NMSU may have falsely certified itself as an MI. App. at 815. The letter further explained that, [a]ccording to CID's investigation results, NMSU did not qualify as an MI under the above statutory criteria for the years 1996-1999. Id. Through this possibly fraudulent certification, NMSU received a grant from the DoD's Army Research Office in the amount of $8,445,899. NMSU contacted the DoE for guidance. On August 8, 2002, Peter McCabe, a representative of the DoE's Office for Civil Rights, informed NMSU through e-mail that it has been designated as a Hispanic serving institution in the 2002 Mino[ri]ty Postsecondary Institutions listing of the U.S. Department of Education. App. at 704. McCabe further confirmed that this listing was not subject to editing by other organizations. Id.