WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE — The Air Force’s decision to suspend APM LLC, a contractor which has prime responsibility for handling infrastructure projects at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, will still allow APM to stay at work well into 2010 finishing federally funded projects it has been awarded.

That work includes security-enhancement construction projects at base entry gates, and repairs and renovations to buildings and other facilities at Wright-Patterson.

The company has a five-year contract, potentially worth $60 million, to handle federally funded infrastructure projects at Wright-Patterson. The government has paid APM more than $26.3 million from January 2009 through the suspension.

The base’s 88th Contracting Squadron has opted to let APM handle the projects it was assigned earlier this year, prior to the Sept. 23 suspension announcement from Air Force headquarters, said Derek Kaufman, a spokesman at Wright-Patterson. That includes about $4 million worth of projects that base officials allotted to APM, but then put on hold in order to allow time for design work or to coordinate with affected agencies on the base.

Government contracting officers have discretionary authority to terminate a contract “for the convenience of the government,” after the contractor has been paid the minimum amount guaranteed by the contract, plus reasonable expenses incurred. Under that option, Wright-Patterson contracting officers could have chosen to solicit competitive bids from other companies for work that has not yet been started.

“If other small businesses are found capable by the local Small Business Administration of doing the work, the bases can negotiate the work and award to a new small-business contractor,” Lt. Col. Ann Stefanek, an Air Force spokeswoman at the Pentagon, wrote in an e-mail response.

Air Force officials at the Pentagon have suspended APM and 18 other companies from further federal contract work, accusing them of concealing information about their ownership and management structure from the government and misrepresenting their eligibility for the government’s contracting program for minority-owned companies. The suspensions affect contracts at Wright-Patterson and 14 other Air Force bases, Air Force officials said.

The suspensions do not affect projects that already are under way.

The government has paid APM more than $26.3 million from January 2009 through the suspension, to handle or subcontract out the various Wright-Patterson projects. APM is in the third year of what could be a five-year, $60 million contract. The company is based in Yorba Linda, Calif., but has an office at Wright-Patterson to coordinate the local work.

The Air Force also suspended four executives affiliated with the companies, including brothers Craig and Townsend Jackson, who are based in Yorba Linda. Their companies referred calls for comment to the brothers’ Washington, D.C., lawyer, Antonio Franco, who did not respond to telephone messages left for him Wednesday, Sept. 30, and Thursday.

The Air Force said it is conducting an investigation to determine whether crimes were committed. No charges have been filed.

Members of Congress said they support the Air Force’s efforts to ferret out waste and abuse in government spending.

“Eliminating fraud and government waste is always important, but it is most urgent when the accusations involve taxpayer dollars intended for our national defense,” said U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Centerville.

“We have an obligation to maintain the credibility of small-business contracts,” said U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. “Small businesses provide critical services to our military and create jobs throughout the Miami Valley.”