‘Plane Couldn’t Fly Without $630 Ashtray’ : ‘Urgent Need’ Clause Was Used for Procurement, House Panel Told

The Navy paid $630 each for ashtrays for a radar surveillance plane after officials formally declared that the craft could not fly without them, a congressional committee was told Thursday.

Citing use of the “urgent need” procurement clause, congressional investigators told a House subcommittee hearing that “unnecessarily high prices” were paid for a host of spare parts at Miramar Naval Air Station in San Diego after officials skirted normal buying practices.

California Rep. Jim Bates (D-San Diego) told the panel, which has enlisted in the ranks of congressional committees delving into military procurement scandals, that the controversial ashtrays were ordered from the Grumman Corp. for the E-2C Hawkeye electronic warfare plane “on an expedited, work-stoppage basis.” This meant that Navy officials decided “the plane could not fly without the ashtray,” he said.

Rep. Jack Brooks (D-Tex.), the panel’s chairman, accused the Navy officials, who were not identified, of “not having the sense God gave a goose.” And the ranking Republican, Rep. Frank Horton of New York, wondered aloud, “Why they couldn’t wait two months or two years for the ashtrays, or maybe put an order out saying you shouldn’t smoke on the aircraft.”

Method Described

“That should not have happened,” Maurice N. Scriber, the Pentagon’s deputy assistant secretary for spare parts management, told the House Government Operations subcommittee on legislation and national security after hearing Bates describe the ashtray purchase procedure.

However, Scriber also contended that “the horror stories you have read about in the newspapers” obscure what he called “positive, tangible progress being made” by the Reagan Administration in correcting military procurement problems.

“We have learned from past mistakes, and we are making genuine progress in bringing down the cost of spare parts,” he said.

Three General Accounting Office investigators told the subcommittee, however, that as recently as this year, Miramar officials were paying $1,143 for an indicator light that was available from other vendors for $330 and $528 for a seat cushion otherwise available for $123.

‘Price Growth’

One of the investigators, William Sanchez, said prices paid by Miramar for spare parts had increased as much as 3,332% on some items and added: “We believe similar examples of price growth very well may be found at other naval facilities.”

In several instances, he said, files contained wording “essentially saying the item was urgently needed and should be obtained from the vendor who could provide the fastest delivery.” When officers of the requesting air squadrons were questioned, he continued, they insisted that the item be obtained “at any cost.”

The hearing came two days after the Navy, concluding its investigation into the purchase of the custom-designed ashtrays and other high-cost spare parts, reinstated Rear Adm. Thomas J. Cassidy, commander of the Pacific early warning fighter wing, who had been relieved of his duties at Miramar. It let stand the similar punishment of Capt. Gary E. Hakanson, commander at Miramar, and Cmdr. Jerry L. Fronabarger, the base supply officer.

Many of the spare parts were purchased on a sole-source basis from Grumman Corp., manufacturer of the F-14 Tomcat fighter, which is based at Miramar. A vice president of the Long Island, N.Y., firm, Weyman B. Jones, said after Thursday’s hearing that the supply of spare parts is “a business we have been trying very hard to get out of. . . . It is a great aggravation to us and represents very small profits.”