NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) Aug. 6, 2003--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that the General Services Administration's (GSA) recommendation to consider whether to initiate debarment proceedings against Sprint Corp. (BBB-/Stable/--) would not immediately affect the ratings or outlook on the company. The GSA's recommendation is related to occurrences in which Sprint overcharged the government for contracted services. Sprint indicated that the overcharges were caused by an unintentional billing error that has been corrected and settled with a $5.2 million penalty, double the government's estimate of the amount of the overbilling. Standard&Poor's will monitor the situation for any further developments and determine whether they could affect the ratings on Sprint.
