
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, April 8, 1990                   TAG: 9004080063
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: C5   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

PHONE COMPANIES SUSPENDED

The Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. and its parent, Bell Atlantic Corp., have been suspended from signing new contracts with the federal government amid allegations that they made false statements to the Treasury Department, a published report said.

Officials at the Treasury Department said the alleged false statements, which could involve criminal offenses, were made during recent negotiations over a disputed contract, The Washington Post said. The agency invoked a federal law that allows any one agency to stop a company it judges unfit, pending resolution of the dispute.

Bell Atlantic officials called the suspension "an abuse of authority and a subversion of the government's own bidding process." The company accused low-level employees at the Treasury of trying to award American Telephone & Telegraph Co. a contract worth about $90 million to provide a 20,000-line telephone system for 16 Treasury locations in the district.

The Treasury has awarded AT&T the contract twice since 1987. Each time C&P had the decision overturned.

C&P said it will challenge the Treasury's move.

The claims center on whether telephones the companies proposed to use in the Treasury job were on the commercial market. Contracting procedures normally require that items bought by the government be market-tested.

by CNB