Defense Firm Denies It Got Tip on Rival’s Offer : Contracts: United Technologies says its boss wasn’t tipped off by a former Navy procurement official on GE’s bid for jets, as reported.

HARTFORD, Conn. —  United Technologies Corp. on Friday denied charges that its chairman, Robert Daniell, received inside Pentagon information from a convicted Navy procurement official that helped the defense company win a lucrative Navy contract.

In a letter circulated Friday to employees, Senior Vice President Frank McAbee said neither Daniell nor any other United Technologies employee received the inside information.

“I can tell you that Bob Daniell did not receive that information,” McAbee said in the letter.

The denial followed a Wall Street Journal report that Daniell was under criminal investigation for allegedly receiving details of a rival bid that helped him win a jet engine contract for Navy planes in 1987.

McAbee said the company believes “that no UTC employee knowingly received stolen information, and we remain strongly committed to honest and ethical behavior at every level of the company.”

The Journal, quoting unnamed sources, said federal prosecutors have a wiretapped telephone conversation indicating that Daniell knew that Melvyn Paisley provided the critical data.

The Justice Department did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment on the newspaper story.

Paisley, the No. 2 civilian in the Navy for most of the Reagan Administration, pleaded guilty last month to accepting bribes in exchange for helping two other large companies win more than $3 billion in military contracts. He is cooperating with the government.

In the letter to employees, McAbee said the company is cooperating with the Justice Department. He said he could not provide further details during the investigation. The Journal said the probe is expected to continue for months.

Paisley left the Navy in 1987, taking with him details of General Electric Co.’s bid to supply jet engines to the military. The Journal said Paisley passed those documents along to an executive at United Technology’s Pratt & Whitney engine unit.

The newspaper said prosecutors believe that Pratt & Whitney officials were referring to Daniell when they told Paisley over the phone that a senior UTC official was “pleased with the numbers.”

Daniell hasn’t been charged with any crime. A United Technologies spokesman said he could neither confirm nor deny a Journal assertion that Daniell had retained an attorney.

The Journal said United Technologies is expected to claim that the reference on the tape is ambiguous.