SPS Will Pay Government to Settle Suit : Agreement: For $2.5 million, company with Santa Ana plant gets off hook on Justice Department claim that it falsified tests of aerospace parts.

SPS Technologies Inc. has agreed to pay $2.5 million to settle a claim by the federal government that the company failed to properly test aerospace fasteners that were used by the military, the Justice Department said Thursday.

SPS, which is based in Newton, Pa., and has a factory in Santa Ana, failed to perform a number of required tests on the high-strength nuts, bolts and screws it produced for the military between 1982 and 1989 as required by military specifications, said Stuart E. Schiffer, acting assistant attorney general.

SPS officials could not be reached for comment. The company announced in September that it would close the Santa Ana plant by the end of this year, idling 300 of its 375 workers there. The remaining employees will work in a much smaller facility.

The government alleged that test scores for some of the items were changed from failing to passing grades; that SPS certified it had performed tests that, in fact, were never done; and that some fasteners were falsely marked to indicate they had been tested when they hadn’t been.

SPS voluntarily brought the discrepancies to the attention of the Defense Department in July, 1990. Under the settlement agreement, the company will pay the $2.5 million in two installments over the next year, along with all legal and accounting costs.