» Qui Tam Ms Sparky

Charging forward and other news

Posted on: January 9th, 2012 at 7:51 am — by Forseti

Michael Riddle once served as a senior employment manager for Dyncorp International, Incorporated (“Dyncorp”). He alleges that Dyncorp contracted to create a database for the United States government, but took no meaningful steps toward fulfilling its obligations. He further alleges that when he protested Dyncorp’s inaction on the database project, he was marginalized at work and eventually terminated, on September 21, 2009.

The judgment of the district court is REVERSED and the case is REMANDED for further proceedings. ~ January 5, 2012 – RIDDLE v. DYNCORP INTERNATIONAL INCORPORATED (Case No. 11-10155)

Defense firm cuts 200 jobs locally
Thomas Gnau - (Dayton Daily News) – January 7, 2012 — Computer Sciences Corp. said Friday it will remove more than 200 employees and contractors from their jobs with a government computer modernization project.

Heather Williams, a spokeswoman for Falls Church, Va.-based CSC, said she could not say how many of those people will be reassigned or laid off.

“I think that’s possible for anybody,” Williams said.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

DoJ starts the new year with Maersk false claims settlement

Posted on: January 4th, 2012 at 4:08 am — by Forseti

Maersk Line to Pay Us $31.9 Million to Resolve False Claims Allegations for Inflated Shipping Costs to Military in Afghanistan and Iraq

(DoJ) – WASHINGTON – January 3, 2011 – Maersk Line Limited has agreed to pay the government $31.9 million to resolve allegations that it submitted false claims to the United States in connection with contracts to transport cargo in shipping containers to support U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Justice Department announced today. The government alleges that Maersk, a wholly-owned American subsidiary of Denmark-based A.P. Moller Maersk, knowingly overcharged the Department of Defense to transport thousands of containers from ports to inland delivery destinations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The government contends that Maersk inflated its invoices in various ways. For example, Maersk allegedly billed in excess of the contractual rate to maintain the operation of refrigerated containers holding perishable cargo at a port in Karachi, Pakistan, and at U.S. military bases in Afghanistan; allegedly billed excessive detention charges (or late fees) by failing to account for cargo transit times and a contractual grace period; allegedly billed for container delivery delays improperly attributed to the U.S. government; allegedly billed for container GPS-tracking and security services that were not provided or only partially provided; and allegedly failed to credit the government for rebates of container storage fees received by Maersk’s subcontractor at a Kuwaiti port.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in GOV. CONTRACTORS, LAWSUITS, Qui Tam, Reports & Investigations. Tags: A.P. Moller Maersk, Afghanistan, Army Criminal Investigation Command*, DoD*, False Claims Act, Iraq, Jerry H. Brown II, Maersk Line Limited, Maj. Gen. David Quantock. 1 Comment »

Judge to Seal Filings in KBR False Claims Suit

Posted on: December 10th, 2011 at 5:49 am — by Ms Sparky

Rose Bouboushian – (Courthouse News) – December 9, 2011 – Halliburton and KBR can redact portions of their motion to dismiss claims that they knowingly billed the United States for fictitious services, a federal judge ruled.

The whistle-blower, Benjamin Carter, worked as a reverse osmosis water purification unit (ROWPU) operator for Halliburton’s former subsidiary KBR in Iraq from January 2005 to April 2005.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in GOV. CONTRACTORS, LAWSUITS, Lawsuits Against KBR, LOGCAP III - KBR, Qui Tam, Reports & Investigations. Tags: Ben Carter, Benjamin Carter, Employee Issues-KBR, False Claims Act, Halliburton, Judge James Cacheris, KBR, Service Employees International (SEII). 15 Comments »

IGs push for greater whistleblower protections for contractors

Posted on: December 7th, 2011 at 1:07 pm — by Forseti

Dr. Walter Tamosaitis, URS Corporation & Former Research & Technology Manager

Whistleblowers have saved taxpayers more than $27 billion since 1987 through the False Claims Act (FCA) award program. However, this program offers no protections to whistleblowers who witness waste, mismanagement and other illegalities, POGO Director of Public Policy Angela Canterbury will tell a Senate subcommittee today in a hearing. ~Dana Liebelson, POGO

Emily Kopp – (Federal News Radio) – December 7, 2011 – Walter Tamosaitis now works in a windowless basement office with two noisy copiers.It’s a far cry from his former job as the research and technology manager at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant, a $13 billion Energy Department project in Washington state that, when completed, will be the biggest nuclear waste treatment plant in the world.

He is being punished for raising safety concerns about the plant’s construction, Tamosaitis told members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Reform Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight Tuesday.

“It’s a very visible example of what happens if you speak up,” he said.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in GOV. CONTRACTORS, Politics, Qui Tam, Senate & House Committee Hearings. Tags: Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, DoDIG*, False Claims Act, Hanford Waste Treatment Plant, Marguerite Garrison, Peggy Gustafson, Senator Claire McCaskill*, URS Corp, URS/Washington Group, Walter Tamosaitis. No Comments »

Everything including Saddam’s loo & other news

Posted on: November 13th, 2011 at 6:59 am — by Forseti

Dear Committee: Main Street Says Look at Pensions
Gretchen Morgenson – (New York Times) – November 12, 2011 – The so-called supercommittee in Congress has until Nov. 23 to find more than a trillion dollars of new savings in the federal budget.

Here’s one idea: Stop reimbursing the costs of pensions and other retirement benefits at huge, and hugely profitable, defense contractors. Over 10 years, such a move could save an estimated $30 billion — the amount by which these pensions are collectively underfunded. (That figure could change, depending on pension performance.)

True, that might seem like a drop in the bucket, given that the committee’s 12 members are trying to save $1.2 trillion over all. But examining this longstanding practice seems worthy in lean times.

The government also promises to help defense companies shore up their pension funds when they become underfunded. Many of these funds have lost money in recent years in declining financial markets or on bad investments, so the bill for taxpayers has been growing.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Lockheed Martin & SAIC settle False Claims Act case for bid rigging at NAVO

Posted on: September 30th, 2011 at 6:42 am — by Forseti

SAIC and Others to Pay U.S. More Than $22.6 Million to Resolve False Claims Allegations

Case Involved The National Center for Critical Information Processing and Storage at Mississippi’s Stennis Space Center

(DoJ) – WASHINGTON – September 29, 2011 – Science Applications International Inc. (SAIC); its subcontractor, Applied Enterprise Solutions LLC (AES); AES CEO Dale Galloway; and former government employees Stephen Adamec and Robert Knesel will pay the United States $22,676,000 to resolve allegations of false claims in a whistleblower suit, the Justice Department announced today. SAIC will pay $20,400,000 and AES and Dale Galloway will pay $2,166,000. Adamec and Knesel are paying $110,000.

The False Claims Act (FCA) suit, filed in June 2009 in the Southern District of Mississippi, alleges that the defendants knowingly violated the FCA when they submitted or caused the submission of false claims and conspired to submit such claims under a contract with the General Services Administration (GSA) in support of the Naval Oceanographic Major Shared Resource Center (NAVO MSRC). That contract was to provide support services for the National Center for Critical Information Processing and Storage (NCCIPS) at the NAVO MSRC. GSA awarded the NCCIPS task order in April 2004 to SAIC, which teamed with Lockheed Martin and AES to perform under the task order. SAIC was paid a total of $116 million under the contract.

The qui tam, or whistleblower, suit alleges that prior to the issuance, and once the NCCIPS solicitation had been publicized, Adamec and Knesel, then government employees, conspired with SAIC, AES, Galloway and Lockheed Martin to ensure that SAIC and its teaming partners were awarded the task order by sharing non-public, advance procurement information with the SAIC team that was not provided to other potential bidders; sharing information about the solicitation with the SAIC team before providing that information to other bidders; and choosing a type of contract and putting language in the solicitation in order to bias the selection process to favor the SAIC team.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in GOV. CONTRACTORS, LAWSUITS, Qui Tam. Tags: Applied Enterprise Solutions (AES), Dale Galloway, David Magee, DoD*, False Claims Act, General Services Administration (GSA), Lockheed Martin, National Center for Critical Information Processing and Storage (NCCIPS), Naval Oceanographic Office, NAVO, SAIC, Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command Information Technology Center, Steven Adamec Jr., U.S. Navy. No Comments »

Foiled by FOIA and other news

Posted on: September 25th, 2011 at 6:08 am — by Forseti

Many western multinational companies have been indicted for paying bribes to Nigerian government officials to secure contracts running into billions of dollars. One of the high profile cases involved former US vice president, Dick Cheney. He was head of the American oilfield services company, Halliburton when its engineering subsidiary, KBR, allegedly paid bribes totaling 180 million dollars to secure contracts worth six billion dollars. Nigerian authorities dropped corruption charges against him after Halliburton agreed to pay a 250 million dollar fine. But anti-corruption campaigners say the settlement is illegal. One of them has gone to court in an effort to make the former US vice president face trial. Sam Olukoya reports from Lagos. ~Free Speech Radio News – September 23, 2011

FOIA Friday: Was the Military the Victim of a War Profiteer Fuel Supplier?
NEIL GORDON – POGO – September 23, 2011 – Last March, the Department of Defense Inspector General (DoDIG) released an audit of contracts for the delivery of fuel to U.S. troops in Iraq. Only a summary of the report’s findings has been made available to the public. Yesterday, POGO received the full report (with redactions). DoDIG’s website still promises that the report will be made publicly available “at a later date.”

The DoDIG conducted the audit in response to concerns former House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) had about the competitiveness and prices paid under fuel supply contracts awarded to the International Oil Trading Company (IOTC). In October 2008, Waxman wrote to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates that IOTC “appears to have engaged in a reprehensible form of war profiteering” and may have overcharged the government as much as $180 million to deliver fuel to troops in Iraq.

(Read the rest of the story here…)