Ann Richards has made some new lobby friends since her days in the governor’s mansion, such as weapons manufacturing clients Lockheed Martin, McDonnell Douglas, and Textron. This is the same woman who in 1988 told the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta: “You don’t have to be from Waco to know that when the Pentagon makes crooks rich without making us stronger, it’s a bum deal.”
Consider the following:
*In December, 1994, Lockheed, the world’s biggest weapons manufacturer, was fined $6.3 million by the U.S. government to settle allegations that the company withheld cost information and inflated the price of a contract it had been awarded.
*In January, 1995, Lockheed pled guilty and paid a $25 million fine for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by allegedly bribing Egyptian officials who were planning to buy cargo planes.
*In April, 1996, Lockheed paid a $1.1 million fine to the feds for submitting false information during contract negotiations on a low-altitude navigation system for the Air Force.
*In October, 1996, Randtron Systems, a unit of Lockheed Martin Tactical Systems, paid the feds $500,000 to settle claims that it didn’t provide relevant information that would have lowered the price of radar antennas it was making for the U.S. Navy.
Richards also told the delegates, “When we pay billions for planes that won’t fly, billions for tanks that won’t fire, and billions for systems that won’t work, that old dog won’t hunt.”
*Earlier this year, Lockheed merged with Northrop, maker of the $2 billion-per-copy B-2 bomber, a plane so finicky that the General Accounting Office recently deduced that it can’t fly safely in the rain or be stationed at bases that don’t have air-conditioned hangars.
*According to the Washington, D.C.-based Taxpayers for Common Sense, Lockheed has asked the Pentagon for a $1.6 billion subsidy to help it cover the cost of its merger with Martin Marietta. “This request comes in spite of the fact that Lockheed Martin’s own estimates indicate its restructuring plan will free up $1.5 to $2.0 billion in cash annually,” says TCS.
*Last year, the GAO reported that McDonnell Douglas had charged the Pentagon $12,280 for a spare door hook on the C-17 cargo jet. The hook originally cost $389. “We believe that the profits awarded for orders of these parts are higher than justified,” said the GAO. — R.B.
This article appears in October 24 • 1997 and October 24 • 1997 (Cover).