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Critics call Air Force negotiator too cozy with industry

By Renae Merle
The Washington Post

	Darleen Druyun
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WASHINGTON — To hear defense contractors describe her, Darleen Druyun was a formidable opponent, one of the most powerful women in the Pentagon and someone who could cripple a cherished program with a scornful eye. Her nickname, they say, was "Dragon Lady."

Druyun, a former weapons buyer for the Air Force, was also known to keep the interests of the industry's giants in mind, understanding that thriving contractors were necessary to ensure that vital Air Force contracts would be fulfilled. Now, her role in negotiating a lease with Boeing for 100 tanker planes has drawn criticism from Capitol Hill.

That criticism centers on whether Druyun, while with the Air Force, became too close to the industry she negotiated with on taxpayers' behalf. Congressional critics have charged she promoted the contract as welfare for a struggling Boeing, where she went to work after retiring from the Air Force last November.

A lifelong bureaucrat, Druyun, 56, built a reputation for riding contractors who fell behind schedule or went over budget, according to several industry officials and former Air Force officials.

"I have never seen her not be a fierce advocate for the Air Force, " said Jim McAleese, a defense-industry lawyer who has negotiated with her.

Druyun's complex working relationship with Boeing is illustrated by company e-mails related to the tanker lease. In an internal October 2001 e-mail, a Boeing executive predicted "Darleen will make the actual contract favorable," adding she promised to help win the support of Wall Street for the deal.

But in an April 2002 e-mail, another executive said "Darleen repeatedly came at us on price through the discussions." Still, the Air Force settled on a price other government officials thought high.

"I am surprised that anyone has accused her of protecting (defense companies). If you took a cross-section of people in industry and government, you would find that she has an outstanding reputation for integrity and she consistently pushed industry for better products at lower costs to the taxpayer," said Bill Sheehan, Druyun's attorney.

Druyun declined to comment for this story.

Twice she has found herself under official scrutiny for allegedly veering across an ethical line. She was cleared after the first investigation. One aspect of her role in the Boeing lease negotiations is part of an inspector general's probe.

Over her 33-year government career, Druyun negotiated and supervised hundreds of programs, but one would come to dominate tenure: the C-17. She claimed for herself the title of "Godmother of the C-17."

The program, designed to produce a plane for carrying heavy equipment around the world, was behind schedule and over budget in the early 1990s. The prime contractor, McDonnell Douglas, also was under financial pressure.

Some Air Force officials feared McDonnell Douglas' crisis would translate into troubles for the C-17 program, according to a 1993 report by the Pentagon's inspector general. The report accused Druyun and four other Air Force officials of secretly funneling $349 million to McDonnell to stave off a cash crunch and keep the program on track.

An Air Force investigation found no criminal wrongdoing, but then-Defense Secretary Les Aspin fired a general associated with the program. That probe cleared Druyun, then a high-ranking official in Air Force Systems Command, and said she was not involved in the payments in question.

Her involvement in the program continued, and in 2000 Druyun announced an Air Force plan to convert the C-17 program into a commercial venture, on the presumption that the sales would reduce Air Force costs. Critics called it a sweetheart deal allowing Boeing, which acquired McDonnell Douglas in 1997, to avoid government oversight. The Air Force eventually dropped the proposal.

Now, Pentagon Inspector General Joseph Schmitz is investigating the negotiations that led to the Boeing tanker lease. In particular, he is examining whether Druyun, while negotiating the lease, gave Boeing information on tankers made by Europe's Airbus. The Boeing rival contends that information it gave the Air Force was proprietary; to distribute such information violates federal procurement rules.

Boeing said the information it received was not proprietary and is publicly available. Druyun does not recall mentioning figures cited in a Boeing internal e-mail, but if she did relay any numbers to Boeing, she is certain they were not proprietary information, Sheehan said.

Criticism of Druyun's negotiation of the tanker lease includes not only pricing issues but also her sale of a house in Fairfax County, Va., in January. The buyer was John Judy, a Boeing lawyer.

Sheehan said that Judy's real-estate agent presented him with several houses and that Druyun's was one of them; that the sale occurred after Druyun retired from the Air Force, and that it was completed when she began working for Boeing's missile-defense program. The sale price, $692,000, was $50,000 below the original asking price.

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