Major Figure in Pentagon Scandal Faced 2 Previous Probes in Navy Dept. Career

WASHINGTON — A former top Navy procurement official suspected by investigators of playing a central role in the current Pentagon fraud scandal was the target of at least two federal investigations during his career in the Navy Department, The Times has learned.

At least one of the investigations of the former official, William L. Parkin, involved allegations that he had maintained improper relationships with defense consultants while working for the Navy, sources said.

That probe, a four-month investigation conducted in mid-1983 by the FBI and other agencies, did not result in any charges against Parkin, who was then executive director for acquisitions in the Navy’s Joint Cruise Missile Program and now is a Washington-area defense consultant.

Superiors Suspicious

But Parkin’s superiors in the Navy Department, still suspicious of his close relationship with defense contractors, imposed strict scrutiny over him in a move that was intended to hasten his retirement, former Pentagon colleagues said. Parkin retired from the Navy Department in November, 1983.

Widespread uneasiness and complaints about Parkin’s performance as the program’s contracts chief had led his superiors to strip him of the authority to award contracts a few months earlier, current and former Pentagon officials said.

“Those that you found yourself uneasy with,” one official said, “you found a way to get rid of.”

Neither Parkin nor his attorney could be reached for comment.

Details of the earlier investigation of Parkin, conducted in 1975, could not be determined, but sources described it as an extensive federal inquiry into his conduct as contracts officer in the Naval Air Systems Command.

Offices Searched

Parkin, the first individual whose phones were tapped by FBI agents pursuing the case, is one of a handful of defense consultants whose offices were searched last month as part of the federal investigation into charges of fraud and bribery in the nation’s weapons contract system.

While with the Navy Department, Parkin worked closely with Melvyn R. Paisley, the former assistant Navy secretary who is at the center of the fraud scandal.

The documents that outline the most specific allegations against Parkin in the current investigation remain under seal. But affidavits that have been released state that wiretapped “conversations revealed that (Parkin) served as a middleman who paid government employees for inside information and sold it to contractors.”

To speed the high-priority cruise missile project, almost all contracts were awarded on a so-called “sole-source” basis, a procedure that makes the procurement process far less competitive and gives the contracting officer extraordinary authority, according to officials familiar with the process.

Those familiar with the 1983 investigation did not name specific consultants who might have figured in the Pentagon investigation.

On his retirement, Parkin received a Distinguished Service Award for his contribution to cost-cutting, and some former colleagues praise his aggressive role in negotiations with defense contractors. None of the former colleagues interviewed would allow their names to be used in this article.

“He was a tiger,” said one former Pentagon official who worked with Parkin. “Everything you wanted him to be on behalf of the government he was.”

‘Can-Do Style’ Cited

But another former colleague said that Parkin’s “can-do style” led him afoul of Navy regulations and procedures, particularly because of his close ties with consultants.

“There are relationships, and then there are relationships,” the official said. “Some of these were a little cozier than they should have been.”

Parkin’s former colleagues said that he has close ties with consultants William M. Galvin and Fred H. Lackner, also targets of the current Pentagon investigation, officials said. A Galvin firm, Upshur Corp., was awarded at least one cruise missile contract during the time Parkin was the program’s chief contracting officer, court documents show.

Parkin, Galvin and Lackner have all been named as subjects of the Pentagon investigation, and their offices or homes were searched last month by the FBI.

Sources and court documents say that investigators are, among other things, seeking to determine whether industry consultants may have bought and sold confidential information that provided contractors an unfair advantage over their competitors in multimillion-dollar contracts with the Defense Department.

Pentagon sources say that investigators recently conducted extensive interviews with Parkin’s former colleagues in the Joint Cruise Missile Program.

With Navy for 20 Years

Parkin worked for the Navy Department as a civilian for 20 years, beginning in the Naval Air Systems Command and rising to the highest echelons of the civil service in his position as executive acquisitions director at the Joint Cruise Missile Project.

He had a key role in the cruise missile project under Rear Adm. M. R. Locke, maintaining authority over contracts and developing a close relationship with another superior, Paisley.

But a new Joint Cruise Missile Program director, Rear Adm. James Hostettler, stripped Parkin in early 1983 of his routine access to Paisley and his authority over contracts as part of a general reorganization that some sources said was spurred in part by dissatisfaction with his methods of awarding contracts.