Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 9, 1995 TAG: 9503090044
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Brunswick Corp. had been investigated for more than two years for the way workers were recording inspections of possibly defective parts being made for F-16 fighter planes sold to the Pentagon.
Brunswick's Marion plant makes radomes, the nose cone in which a plane's radar equipment is located. The government's investigations stemmed from complaints by employees that the documentation process was concealing when workers rejected parts as defective.
Supervisors are allowed to override workers' decisions that parts are defective, Assistant U.S. Attorney Randy Ramseyer said in an interview. But each decision along the chain of command must be marked down on an inspection report that inspectors from the Defense Department can see, and go back and question a supervisor about, he said.
The Brunswick plant was not recording the workers' original conclusions about whether parts were defective, so government inspectors were not able to follow up on the reports, Ramseyer said. Radomes made from April to August 1992 were warehoused while the investigation was under way, but now they may be sold. The documentation practice was changed by August 1992.
"As far as investigators could tell, there was never any indication any defective radomes went out of the plant," Ramseyer said. "That's why we felt a $200,000 payment was adequate."
Brunswick has been trying to sell its Marion plant and the investigation had been holding up the sale. A Brunswick spokesman did not return phone calls seeking comment.
by CNB