Boeing began its investigation of Druyun's hiring in the summer when she became a target of critics of the tanker deal. The investigation, led by an outside law firm, initially turned up no impropriety. Two weeks ago, the coverup was discovered, McCracken said.
The company's board was briefed Friday and met again Sunday night to approve a decision to fire Sears and Druyun, both 56. James A. Bell, senior vice president of finance, was named acting chief financial officer.
Michael Sears, left, was Boeing Co.'s chief financial officer until his firing. Darleen A. Druyun was a Boeing senior vice president.
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_____Post Archives_____
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Rules Circumvented on Huge Boeing Defense Contract (The Washington Post, Oct 27, 2003)
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Air Force-Boeing Negotiator Criticized (The Washington Post, Oct 27, 2003)
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Panel Asked To Review Air Force Lease Plan (The Washington Post, Oct 9, 2003)
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New Questions Raised About Boeing Deal (The Washington Post, Oct 8, 2003)
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Air Force Faulted in Report on Plane Deal (The Washington Post, Oct 2, 2003)
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Corporate Trials: Executives from companies that were among the brightest stars in the 1990s will be fighting to defend their reputations and to stay out of prison in jury trials scheduled in the next few months. | | | | | | |
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Druyun's attorney did not return a call for comment, and Sears could not be reached. No action has been taken against Druyun's daughter, who is a junior employee at the company. "There will be some further investigation to see if she had any part in this," said McCracken.
Boeing was already under an ethical cloud after an Air Force inquiry found in July that the company had proprietary Lockheed Martin documents during a competition for rocket launches. The company was stripped of $1 billion in business and was suspended from new space contracts. Former senator Warren B. Rudman completed an inquiry into the company's ethics last week, but Boeing has now asked him to expand it into Boeing's procedures for hiring government employees.
The Air Force may reopen its own inquiry into the stolen documents in the rocket-launch competition.
The firings will probably lead many defense companies and government officials to reexamine whether a campaign in the 1980s for higher ethical standards was eroded by a recent push for more flexibility in government contracting, said Steven L. Schooner, an associate professor with the Government Procurement Law Program at George Washington University.
"Inevitably this is going to lead to broader scrutiny of how companies hire former government officials," said Loren Thompson, a defense industry consultant.
Some in Congress had questioned Druyun's role in negotiating a $21 billion tanker contract for the Air Force. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a chief critic of the deal, had complained that Druyun seemed to act as an advocate for Boeing rather than for the Air Force.
Druyun's dismissal will probably give critics of the tanker deal more leverage as the Air Force determines how to implement the contract. The Pentagon has been fighting requests by McCain for internal e-mails and documents related to the lease-buy strategy. "It now increases the necessity to get the documents from the Pentagon," said McCain.
Before the latest revelations, Boeing had been working to repair its image with the Air Force, which was considering lifting its temporary ban on awarding new space contracts to the company. To show its commitment, Boeing had created an office of internal governance.
"Boeing always used to be viewed as a conservative, highly ethical, results-driven organization," said Thompson. "The implication [of yesterday's actions] is that the company might have had a chronic ethical problem going back for some time, and taints a fair amount of the work it has been engaged in."
