Fort Belvoir, Va. –
DCAA Auditor Diyana Flores, Supervisor Auditor Sandy Porter, and former Auditor Janet Leonard helped discover Federal False Claims Act violations that resulted in a $600,000 settlement.
The American States Utility Services, Inc. (ASUS) will pay $600,000 for knowingly submitting inflated price quotes. Between April 2016 and May 2017, ASUS submitted price quotes for 19 water and sewer projects on U.S. military installations in North Carolina to the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) at Fort Belvoir, Va. The United States alleged that each quote from ASUS included costs that ASUS knew would not be used.
The Defense Logistics Agency and DCAA auditors evaluated project quotes for price reasonableness. Quotes and price reasonableness were based on the false premise that the projects would be performed with subcontractor costs. DCAA auditors supported the investigation by providing damages calculations to the Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID) and by participating in meetings with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Read the Department of Justice press release.