The the US Environmental Protection Agency might have lifted a week-old suspension of IBM from seeking new federal IT work but the shock waves and fallout from this case will continue. IBM is not out of the wars yet. It still faces an investigation by the EPA as well as a federal grand jury probe over a bid for a contract at the agency in 2006.

Details about the allegations against IBM are scarce but there are claims of evidence that the computer company improperly obtained bidding information that it used in a contract protest. But the case could have massive ramifications for other contractors, says Jeff Horwitz at the Legal Times.

. The lawyers are complaining about the way the EPA suspended the company without any prior notification, they have told Horwitz, and that should make other contractors very nervous.

But the EPA maintains it did nothing wrong. Robert Meunier, the officer in charge of the debarring at the EPA, has told Russell Mokhiber's Corporate Crime Reporter that the EPA had no choice:

"No agency, no agency - I'll repeat it for a third time - no agency - is allowed during the course of a criminal investigation, without the approval of the investigators and the prosecutors, to call the target of an investigation, to invite them in, to discuss the investigation and say - here is our evidence," Meunier said. "If you have seen that happen, let me know. I have not ... If I were not to have suspended IBM, the fruits of the misconduct would have gone directly to the contractor on whose behalf the misconduct occurred."

So the EPA says it's just following the rules. But that's not going to stop the agency getting savaged by corporate America seeking to be cut a bit more slack.