Word: gsa
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...chief network engineer for the General Services Administration, Sureshar Soni helps analyze costs for the vast federal telephone system used by 1.3 million Government workers. Because the GSA is preparing to replace that system for the first time since 1963, a deal worth up to a whopping $25 billion for the companies that will build the new network, Soni was destined to play a significant role. Instead he is embroiled in a byzantine scandal that is paralyzing the giant phone project. According to investigators for the GSA and a Senate committee, Soni leaked secret bidding information in a mysterious pattern...
...trouble at the GSA apparently started last spring, when bidding began for a separate but somewhat related project, a $55 million contract to build a dozen telephone-switching installations. According to one of Soni's co- workers, the engineer made photocopies at GSA headquarters of the confidential AT&T bid documents on the switching devices. Soni allegedly leaked the information to two or more of the regional telephone companies competing against AT&T for the jobs, thus enabling them to tailor their bids accordingly. He reportedly told an official of Southern Bell, a subsidiary of the regional BellSouth company, exactly...
...case, Soni was not necessarily a champion of the underdog. On at least one occasion he shared information with AT&T as well, though AT&T claims the information was public and not particularly useful. When the GSA awarded the contracts last October, AT&T was assigned to build five of the switches, while the other seven were divided among four Baby Bells -- Pacific Telesis, Bell Atlantic, U S West and BellSouth...
What was in it for Soni? GSA probers allege that he accepted free entertainment from bidders who eventually won. Officials of Southern Bell, for example, reportedly regaled him five times at restaurants in Atlanta and Washington. But investigators are not convinced that a few free meals explain Soni's behavior. Some believe that since Soni seemed to leak information on an equal-opportunity basis, he may have been trying, in a perverse fashion, to save the Federal Government money by manipulating all of the potential contractors...
...last week lurched into the era of the no- smoking sign. Although each agency head is authorized to designate certain areas for smoking -- hence the confusion -- new rules from the General Services Administration now restrict all smoking by the 890,000 federal employees in 6,800 federal buildings. The GSA joined what has become a nationwide crusade against smoking, particularly smoking in public. Indeed, not since Prohibition has the U.S. seen such a widespread attempt to change people's personal habits by regulation...