WASHINGTON-Sprint Corp. responded bitterly to a recommendation from the inspector general of the General Services Administration that it be debarred from future government contracts.
“We find it outrageous that they would even consider this,” said Sprint spokesman James Fisher. “There was no attempt on our part to defraud. It was nothing but a billing error.”
The IG’s recommendation resulted from a billing software change where the government was charged incorrectly for long-distance calls.
Sprint’s government contracts are valued at more than $600 million.
The IG’s recommendation is the first step in the process that could lead Sprint to be in the same place as bankrupt WorldCom Inc., which was debarred from government work late last month.
Fisher said it was outrageous that Sprint, which has paid the government twice the amount of the inadvertent error, would be lumped in the same category as WorldCom, which has admitted to more than $11 billion in accounting fraud.
While the House Commerce Committee jumped on the WorldCom bandwagon when it was debarred, a spokesman told the Associated Press that debarring Sprint was “pretty extreme.”
While the allegations against Sprint did not include its wireless business, Sprint’s wireless-tracking stock nevertheless took a hit, dropping 27 cents in trading Tuesday.
