The Nation - News from July 15, 1988

The Army waited three years before starting to investigate a massive defense contracting scandal at a Texas helicopter company, a top Pentagon official said. In March, 1985, the Army received a report by government auditors that the accounting system was out of control at Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. in Ft. Worth. Even earlier, in March, 1984, government auditors warned that costs for helicopters and spare parts “can be whatever Bell chooses to record.” The Pentagon official, Jay Sculley, was castigated by Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), who compared the Bell Helicopter scandal to Watergate, the crisis that forced the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon in 1974. Sculley, assistant secretary of the Army for weapons research and acquisition, said that although the Army learned of serious problems at Bell in 1985, it was not until this year that a formal investigation began.