ITT Cannon Is Target of NASA Probe

Defense electronics contractor ITT Cannon on Friday said it has become the focus of a federal probe of alleged irregularities in an International Space Station contract.

But company officials said they have no idea what government investigators are looking for.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration informed ITT Cannon officials on Aug. 15 that NASA would send investigators to the 1,100-employee plant and headquarters in Santa Ana to interview workers involved in the space station program, the company said.

“But we have not been informed of what the allegations are or the source of them,” spokeswoman Sandra Wood said. She said the company has reviewed its contract and has not found any problems.

ITT Cannon, a unit of $8.5-billion industrial giant ITT Industries, supplies electrical connectors for communications devices on the space station.

Boeing Co.’s Space Systems unit, based in Seal Beach, is the prime contractor on the $17-billion project, which involves hundreds of subcontractors that provide components, supplies and services.

ITT Cannon’s subcontract, which dates to the early 1990s, is worth several million dollars but represents less than 1% of the company’s total revenue, Wood said.

NASA officials confirmed the investigation but would not say what it is about or whether it stretches beyond work being done or products being used by ITT Cannon.

Officials at Boeing declined to comment on the investigation, although one spokesman said he did not know of any other space station subcontractor being interviewed by NASA.

Other industry sources also said they have not heard of a broader probe.

“If this were a very serious problem, they wouldn’t have given [ITT Cannon] so much advance notice; they’d have shown up unannounced at 8 a.m. one morning and started taking boxes of documents away,” said Jon Kutler, president of Quarterdeck Investment Partners. The Los Angeles firm provides financial and consulting services to the aerospace and defense industry, and Kutler has served on several industry contracting oversight committees.

Wood said that ITT Cannon’s general counsel, Andrew de Cicco, sent a memo to employees on Aug. 15 informing them of the NASA probe and urging them to cooperate. She said the company is not aware of any contacts yet between NASA investigators and employees.