Lockheed Seeks to Question Druyun
Lockheed Martin Corp. said Wednesday that it had filed a request with a federal court to question a former top Air Force official who was sentenced to prison for admitting that she favored Lockheed rival Boeing Co. on several multibillion-dollar Pentagon contracts.
Lockheed said in its filing in federal court in Orlando, Fla., that its lawyers wanted to know whether Darleen Druyun had tainted the awarding of a $1.88-billion rocket contract to Boeing in 1998.
Last year, Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed filed a civil lawsuit against Boeing alleging it lost the lucrative military rocket contract for what are known as evolved expendable launch vehicles because Boeing employees stole proprietary information from Lockheed.
Now Lockheed wants to depose Druyun to see whether she also played a role in the rocket competition between the nation’s two largest defense contractors.
Druyun is at the heart of the biggest Pentagon procurement scandal in decades. Last month she admitted to providing favorable terms to Boeing on four major contracts, beginning in 2000, because the company gave members of her family jobs.
“We’re pursuing discovery in the EELV [rocket] case to determine whether there is any evidence of favoritism or any other misconduct involving Boeing and Ms. Druyun regarding the EELV contract and other procurements,” Lockheed spokesman Jeffery Adams said.
The judge in the civil case agreed to let Lockheed question Druyun and Boeing executives about communications between Boeing and Druyun since January 1995 that are related to the rocket competition, Lockheed said. But Boeing lawyers objected and a hearing was set for next month to resolve those objections, Lockheed said.
Boeing spokesman Dan Beck said Lockheed’s request for information about Druyun distracted from the issues in the lawsuit: “Any attempt to inject Darleen Druyun into this case is a strategy to sensationalize Lockheed’s claims, influence government decisions elsewhere and develop evidence to support Lockheed’s bid protest.”
Lockheed filed its civil lawsuit after federal prosecutors accused two former Boeing managers of stealing Lockheed proprietary rocket documents.
Separately, on Wednesday, Marvin Sambur, the Air Force’s chief weapons buyer and Druyun’s former boss, said he was resigning to help clear the way for military promotions that had been blocked by Congress.
“It’s becoming pretty apparent that if I stayed it would be very difficult for the Air Force to have anybody confirmed,” Sambur told Reuters.
On Tuesday, Air Force Secretary James Roche resigned in a move aides said was also designed to free up nominations of officers whose Senate confirmations were held up by Armed Services Committee member Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). McCain has been a chief critic of the Air Force’s controversial $23.5-billion plan to acquire aerial refueling tankers from Chicago-based Boeing.
*
Times wire services were used in compiling this report.
