Potomac-Hudson Engineering, with headquarters in Bethesda, employs about 40 people in Maryland.
The environmental consulting company totals about $5.5 million in government contracts, according to data from Integrity Interactive, a Massachusetts-based firm specializing in corporate ethics and compliance programs.
PHE works with the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy, performing environmental-analysis studies, said Fred Carey, program manager for the company.
The company might seem small when compared with contracting giants such as Johns Hopkins University and Lockheed Martin, but above $5 million, size doesn?t matter when it comes to potential ethics and compliance regulations for government contractors.
In the coming months, the U.S. General Services Administration is expected to issue changes to the Federal Acquisition Regulation, imposing heightened ethics standards for companies with $5 million or more in government contracts.
Of the 350 Maryland companies with government contracts exceeding $5 million, PHE ranks No. 332 in terms of government contract dollars. The regulations, however, remain the same for all of the firms.
“From the perspective of operating in an ethical manner, the regulations shouldn?t affect us,” Carey said. “If we?re not operating in the interest of the customer, we?re not going to be in business.”
What remains to be seen, though, is the administrative burden the ethics and compliance standards will have on companies, Carey said.
“When you get into record keeping and reporting, in effect it costs us money to show we?re being good,” Carey said.
Enron-type scandals have forced the government to enforce corporate accountability in recent years, said Richard Cellini, vice president of Integrity Interactive. The companies are expected to report potential ethical violations to the government.
“If you?re not reporting potential violations, the government will assume you aren?t investing enough in your programs,” Cellini said.
Most companies across the country have said they?re eager to understand and follow the guidelines, Cellini said.
John Hopkins, with more than $615 million in research grants and health care reimbursements from the government, shouldn?t have to make sweeping changes to its ethics code, said Jim Kaufman, director of government affairs.
“We?ve always followed a strict standard of ethics,” Kaufman said. “We?re already doing a lot of the things the government asks.”
Lockheed Martin, which does 60 percent of its business with the Department of Defense, also doesn?t expect to make any major changes to its programs, company spokesman Scott Lusk said.
Said Cellini: “It?s no longer good enough to have ?window-dressing?-type programs.”
