AP wire copy re Baker & Taylor

[Pat Wallace <DENWALL@AOL.COM>]

Forward from  Patricia D. Wallace,  Chair, Hawaii Working Group
(ALA Social Responsibility Round Table /Alternatives in Print Division)
Denwall@aol.com

Date: Tue, 4 Feb 1997
From: saponwhr@ccmail.orst.edu (Richard Sapon-White)
To: progressive/alternative library community
<PLGNET-L@cornell.edu>
Subject: Baker & Taylor scandal (fwd)

     This forwarded news item seems a propos to the discussion of Hawaii's
     outsourcing decision.

     Richard Sapon-White
______________________________ Forward Header ______________
Subject: libs-or/ Baker & Taylor scandal (fwd)
Author:  Warren Netz <netzw@pls.lib.ca.us> at Internet_Gateway
Date:    2/4/97 11:04 AM

Attached from today's AP wire.

FEDS SAY LIBRARIES OVERCHARGED

 By RICHARD COLE=
 Associated Press Writer=

   SAN FRANCISCO (AP)   The nation's largest book distributor
overcharged schools and libraries nationwide by up to $200 million
for discount books, a federal prosecutor said Monday.

   More than 90 percent of the nation's libraries buy some or all
of their books from the company, Baker & Taylor Inc., currently
owned by The Carlyle Group.

   Frank Hunger, an assistant U.S. Attorney General, and Michael
Yamaguchi, the U.S. attorney in San Francisco, said they were
joining a whistle-blower suit filed in San Francisco by the former
head of the Richmond, Va., library system and a former Baker &
Taylor salesman.

   Some of the 15,000 or so libraries that were potentially
overcharged are federal institutions, said Hunger, who heads the
Justice Department's civil division.

   The federal complaint under the False Claims Act joins a civil
suit that makes sweeping accusations against Baker & Taylor.

   The suit estimates the schools, libraries and other public
institutions have been overcharged between $100 million and $200
million over a 10-year period.

   ``Schools and libraries are the least able to afford to pay
fraudulently inflated prices for books, especially in this time of
budget cutbacks,'' said the whistle-blower's attorney, Eric Havian
of San Francisco.

Jim Ulsamer, president of Baker & Taylor Books, called the
charges ``outrageous,'' ``distorted,'' and ``false.''

   ``We intend to take every action necessary to ensure Baker &
Taylor's reputation   forged on 169 years of service to the library
community   is not harmed by these groundless charges,'' Ulsamer
said.

   He said the company has answered all questions from government
investigators.

   Federal attorneys and the whistle-blower suit filed by former
Richmond head librarian Robert Costa and former books salesman
Ronald Thornburg allege Baker & Taylor systematically changed the
coding on what are called ``trade'' books.

   These books are sold by contract with the libraries at discounts
of 46 percent or greater. They are often technical books such as
legal and medical texts.

   Over a 10-year period, Baker & Taylor allegedly changed the
computer codes on trade books, both in its own records and those of
its customers. It misclassified them as nontrade books and charged
higher prices, as much as $2 on a $10 book, Havian said.

   The few customers who noticed the difference and called the
company were immediately given refunds and told the overbilling was
caused by a computer error, but the codes were not changed.

   ``We do believe that the practice was at least curtailed around
1993 but not completely,'' he said.

   Baker & Taylor ships over 40 million books each year, and has a
major share of the $444 million in books sold to the nation's
15,000 public libraries, the U.S. attorney's office said.

   Baker & Taylor was owned by W.R. Grace & Co., which sold it to
The Carlyle Group in 1992. Both companies are named in the suit as
well.

END

Warren Netz
San Mateo County (Calif.) Library
netzw@pls.lib.ca.us
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