A family connection

Introduction

One of the more interesting Iraq contracts the Center uncovered involves a tiny firm called Sullivan Haave Associates.

Sullivan Haave is actually a one-man shop run by a government consultant named Terry Sullivan. Sullivan says his firm was hired as a subcontractor by Science Applications International Corp., one of the most successful and best politically connected government contractors doing work in Iraq.

Sullivan says his job was to spend four months in Iraq providing advice to various ministries being set up there by coalition and local authorities.

Sullivan has a much more intimate relationship with the Pentagon than his competitors, however. He happens to be married to Carol Haave, who, since November 2001, has been deputy assistant secretary of defense for security and information operations. And yes, Haave is the same person who appears in the name Sullivan Haave Associates.

Haave seemed surprised when contacted by the Center for Public Integrity at her Pentagon office about the contract.

She said she was no longer associated with the company in any way. She then said she had no knowledge of any work the company might be doing in Iraq.

When asked who the Center might speak with about the contract, Haave said that person was currently out of the country and unavailable. She said she would try to reach the person and have him call the Center.

A short time later Sullivan called.

He said the contract had only been for four months and he had completed it in July. He said he did not know what the total cost of the contract was. “They paid me for four months of my time,” he said.

Sullivan then disclosed that Haave was his wife, but said the contract had nothing to do with her position at the Pentagon.

“We have been very sensitive to the issue of conflict for a long time,” said Sullivan, who said his wife had signed everything involving the company over to him before she took her current job.

“People need to know how we operate as a husband and wife,” said Sullivan. “We keep things completely separate and always have.”

Besides the Iraq job, records obtained by the Center show that Sullivan Haave Associates has been awarded two other Pentagon contracts in recent years, both before Haave took her current job.

One contract was to provide “basic services” to the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. It was awarded in 1999 and was valued at $78,000. The second contract was from the Department of the Army for “technical services” and was valued at $100,000. It was awarded to Sullivan Haave Associates in 2001.

Haave has worked extensively on Pentagon projects during her career, both within and outside the Defense Department.

A biography posted on the Web site of a Pentagon advisory group she met with in July says Haave has had a “unique career in the public and private sectors [that] spans over 20 years of military, industry, and civilian government experience.”

The biography describes Sullivan Haave Associates as having been a “woman-owned company that operated solely on behalf of the Department of Defense to facilitate the transition of advanced technologies into military operations.”