PANAMA CITY — Eastern Shipbuilding officials have not given up on a massive U.S. Coast Guard contract the company recently lost.
In a keel authentication ceremony Friday, Eastern President Joey D'Isernia said he plans to continue exploring all avenues into why the Coast Guard did not select the Panama City shipbuilder for a $3 billion contract to construction 11 of its ships.
"We're (going) to explore every avenue and option that we have available to us to make sure that the people of this community and the people of this shipyard were treated fairly,” D'Isernia said. “We owe that to them, (and) we owe that to our community.”
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The contract, which includes the rights to ships five through 15 in the Coast Guard's 25-ship Offshore Patrol Cutter Program, was instead given to Austal USA, a foreign-owned shipbuilder based in Alabama.
Each cutter is about 360 feet long, 54 feet wide and able to travel at a top speed of 22 to 23 knots. They are used by the Coast Guard as command centers to enforce maritime borders.
D'Isernia is passionate about the decision because Eastern was commissioned to build the first four ships in the program, three of which currently are under construction. The company also was given the rights to the first 11 cutters in 2016, but that contract was reduced to four after Hurricane Michael hit in October 2018.
Friday's event commemorated the construction of the third cutter being built by Eastern. Dubbed the USCGC Ingham, the ship is 20% to 30% complete and will patrol the Alaskan coast once finished.
"This is a very important and critical milestone in the Coast Guard OPC Program," D'Isernia said. "It's also a very critical milestone for our company and our community. It means that we're making promises and keeping them ... and we're striving to produce excellence.
"Every time you can meet a milestone like this on time, on schedule, on budget, it really means a lot."
He noted on Friday that the first three of the Coast Guard ships being built by Eastern are 20% to 75% complete.
During the ceremony, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska was designated as the ship's sponsor. Her initials were welded onto a plaque that will be installed on the Ingham's keel.
A press release from Eastern Shipbuilding says Murkowski, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, is a "strong advocate for the national defense and coastal priorities in the Pacific and Arctic regions."
Congressman Neal Dunn of Panama City was among the dozens of people who attended Friday's event.
Dunn said he plans to meet with Coast Guard officials next week to discuss why Austal was selected for the cutters contract. Eastern officials met with the Coast Guard for a general debriefing on Tuesday, D'Isernia said.
Dunn said he believes Austal's bid was "unrealistic."
The company has been investigated by the U.S Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as Australian security regulators, for its financial and procurement practices, according to an Associated Press article from February 2021.
"An underbid on military procurement is an old and well-worn fraudulent scheme," Dunn said. "Eastern Shipbuilding has done everything not only right, they've done it better than right. They've done it as well as it's ever been done."
D'Isernia said he plans for Eastern to soon release information on whether the company will lodge a formal appeal into the Coast Guard's selection.
"On June 30, we were notified by the Coast Guard that we were not successful in winning (the contract for cutters) five through 15," D'Isernia said. "It's an understatement to say that's disappointing. It's beyond disappointing. We as a community, as a shipyard, have done everything right. We not only put ourselves in a position to win, we put forth a proposal that represented an easy decision for the Coast Guard, and unfortunately, I believe they made a mistake."