Amdahl Corp, NCR-Comten, Storage Technology Corp and Memorex Telex Corp are among six signatories to a letter sent to US Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci complaining that US Navy officials routinely rig procurement contracts so as to favour IBM. The letter claims contract specifications are based around IBM products rather than the actual requirements, and that these abuses have been instrumental in ensuring awards to IBM for all major large-scale general-purpose ADP – automatic data processing – hardware requirements since 1983. It is noteworthy that the four complainants named above – the other two are integrators Vion Corp and PacifiCorp Capital Inc – are manufacturers of IBM compatible equipment, and are complained that they are squeezed out despite being around 25% cheaper by tenders that specify IBM equipment. A $150m contract to modernise computers in regional Navy facilities has been suspended after protests from potential bidders that the specifications unfairly favour IBM. The Pentagon says it will respond soon to the letter, which includes details of specific pacts that allegedly favoured IBM.
