Fort Belvoir, Va. –
Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), a major defense contractor headquartered in Reston, Virginia, has paid $5,982,865 to resolve allegations that it violated the federal False Claims Act. The settlement arises out of a contract for SAIC to provide information technology support to the U.S. Army.
The United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California and the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command’s Major Procurement Fraud Unit, with assistance from the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, began its investigation after SAIC self-disclosed certain time charging and contract administration irregularities associated with a U.S. Army contract.
The United States contended that SAIC employees misused administrative leave by working on contract requirements for a certain project before funding was available and then later clearing those charges by adding extra billing hours that were not worked to a separate project. The United States also contended that SAIC employees were provided charge codes for their hours to be recorded to projects with available funding, while they continued to work on tasks that were not funded. Once the new funding arrived, the employees working on a project that provided the original funding would then charge their hours to the new project. The United States contended that SAIC knowingly submitted to the government false claims for payment for the mischarging on these projects
DCAA auditors Joy Li, Simon Lai and Kotomi Johnson, and Supervisory Auditor Fei Lincoln supported the case. They analyzed payroll records, travel logs, labor categories, labor rates, and cross-charged hours and developed damage models for the Government.
Read the Department of Justice press release here.