8 more Air Force pacts probed

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Pentagon is investigating eight additional Air Force contracts to determine whether they were manipulated or influenced illegally by a former Air Force official who was convicted last year of giving Boeing Co. special treatment on a tanker-lease deal.

The eight contracts range in value from $42 million to $1.5 billion and their total value is about $3 billion, according to a summary provided by the Pentagon yesterday.

Michael Wynne, the acting chief of Pentagon acquisition programs, said the eight contracts were identified as suspicious from among 407 reviewed by a team of military and civilian contracting specialists. They referred the eight to the Pentagon's inspector general.

The eight are in addition to seven that are being investigated. At least four of the eight contracts involve Boeing.

Mr. Wynne stressed that it is not clear whether any of the eight have been tainted. They were picked for investigation because they "seemed to be out of the normal process."

The review and investigations are an outgrowth of revelations about Darleen Druyun's handling of the multibillion-dollar deal with Boeing that would have allowed the Air Force to lease a fleet of new aerial-refueling aircraft. Congress eventually killed the deal because of Druyun's involvement.

Druyun was an Air Force acquisition executive who later was hired by Boeing as a top executive. She pleaded guilty last year and is serving nine months in federal prison.

Boeing's former chief financial officer, Michael Sears, also has pleaded guilty for his role in hiring Druyun. He is scheduled to be sentenced Friday.

Boeing spokesman Dan Beck said the firm would continue to cooperate with the government to resolve any outstanding questions.

"We'll continue to cooperate as these go to the [inspector general], and we'll be responsive to every request for information from [the Defense Department]. If any problems are found, we've got both the will and the processes to fix them," Mr. Beck said.

The biggest contract was a $1.5 billion award to a Boeing-Pemco team in 2000 and 2001 for depot maintenance for the Air Force's KC-135 aerial-refueling aircraft.

Mr. Wynne said the reviews and investigations have not identified any other Air Force acquisition executive who acted improperly or illegally in the contracting process.

Meanwhile, two federal criminal investigations into Boeing in Los Angeles and Virginia were expected to end soon without more indictments, government and industry sources told the Los Angeles Times.

The company has maintained that any ethical violations were confined to Sears and Druyun.