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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 13, 1993                   TAG: 9310130176
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

TAILHOOK PUBLICITY ALTERED BILLING DEFENSE GIANT HAD CLAIMED EXPENSES

McDonnell Douglas Corp. sent more than 30 employees, including one of its senior executives, to the 1991 Tailhook convention and billed the Defense Department for the expenses - including golf outings, tennis tournaments, X-rated movies and employee salaries for four days.

Then, six weeks later, when reports began to emerge that scores of women had been sexually assaulted or harassed by Naval officers at the Tailhook event, McDonnell switched the billing to a company-paid account, according to company expense reports obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

The General Accounting Office, which audited McDonnell's Tailhook expenses, is expected to assert today at a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing that the charges were part of $2 billion in improper billings to so-called overhead accounts by government contractors in fiscal 1991.

A McDonnell spokesman said Tuesday that the company, the nation's largest defense contractor, would have no comment on the disclosures until after the hearing.

by CNB