A U.S. senator ripped into Sun and the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) during a speech on the Senate floor on Wednesday, but both the company and the agency disputed the senator's information.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, a longtime critic of Sun's contracts with the U.S. government, repeated allegations that top GSA managers interfered in contract negotiations with Sun. The GSA coordinates government-wide contracts for U.S. agencies.

GSA executives "put pressure on the contract officer to sign a potentially bad contract," Grassley said Wednesday. "All the evidence suggest that this particular contractor had been overcharging the government for years."

Sun, still facing a lawsuit in Arkansas over government contracting procedures, has painted Grassley's complaints as a misunderstanding about a disagreement between GSA Administrator Lurita Doan and the agency's inspector general's office. The GSA's inspector general has accused Sun of overcharging government agencies by more than US$25 million in contracts dating back to June 1997.

Grassley, in his speech, accused Sun of canceling its GSA contract before an audit he requested was completed.

"Now, if this contract was such a 'good deal for America,' as has been suggested by Sun and GSA management, then you would think Sun would rush to cooperate," he said. "They did not. Instead, for three months, Sun complained to me, procrastinated, withheld information and fought the audit at every step.

"Why would Sun cancel a contract it fought so hard to get?" he added. "Did Sun have something to hide?"

Grassley called on the GSA to fix its contracting procedures. He forwarded the results of a confidential audit of GSA and Sun to several government officials, he said.

Grassley's speech was "not based on accurate information," Sun said in a statement late Wednesday. "Sun produced all the information requested by the contracting officer and, only after that production was complete, did we cancel the contract."

Sun canceled the GSA contract in mid-September. It did not give a reason for backing away from the contract, but said it would continue to fulfill other government contracts not affiliated with the GSA multiaward contract. "We took this step reluctantly, as we have always valued our relationship with GSA and its team of committed professionals," Sun said in a statement then.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.