Raytheon cited for lax ITAR compliance

   Raytheon, a major international defense and aerospace company, will pay $8 million in civil penalties and remedial expenditures to resolve hundreds of alleged violations of U.S. export regulations designed to protect sensitive technology from falling in the hands of enemies.
   The State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, which oversees exports of military goods, said Raytheon violated the Arms Export Control Act and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations because it had weak corporate control of its systems and procedures for managing authorizations to transfer military products and services to friendly countries as well as temporary permissions to import certain articles.
   The violations included inaccurate tracking, valuation and documentation of temporary exports and imports of controlled hardware, manufacture of such hardware by Raytheon’s foreign partners in excess of the approved amounts, and failures to timely obtain and submit required documents. 
   “Raytheon repeatedly discovered and disclosed such violations to the department, in some cases finding that previously reported remedial measures failed to prevent or detect additional similar violations subsequently disclosed,” a State Department news release said.
   Under the Raytheon consent agreement, half of the civil penalty will be suspended on the condition that the funds be used to fix the company’s compliance system. Raytheon will also hire a compliance officer to oversee the agreement, which will also require the Waltham, Mass.-based company to conduct two external audits of its compliance program during the four-year period as well as implement additional compliance measures.
   Raytheon voluntarily disclosed nearly all of the ITAR violations resolved in the settlement, cooperated with Bureau of Political-Military Affairs reviews, and begun to correct many compliance problems.
   The State Department said Raytheon’s cooperation convinced it not to prohibit Raytheon from exporting defense articles or services. – Eric Kulisch