RICHLAND, WA – A Hanford contractor has agreed to pay roughly $5 million in a settlement over the company charging the U.S Department of Energy for hours not actually worked during the past 10 years.
Hanford Mission Integration Solutions must pay the feds roughly $3.45 million — including $1.73 million in restitution to the Energy Department — while paying another almost $1.5 million to whistleblower Bradley Keever and his attorneys. The settlement was announced this week.
The absence of work and false labor costs began in 2016 under Mission Support Alliance, which handled building maintenance across the 580-square-mile nuclear cleanup site.
These practices continued when Hanford Mission Integration Solutions took over Mission Support Alliance’s contract. Both companies are subsidiaries of other corporations, which were also named as defendants.
Those umbrella corporations are Leidos, Inc.; Center Group; Parsons Government Services; Lockheed Martin; Wackenhut Services; and Jacobs Engineering Group.
A Hanford employee specializing in fire sprinkler systems since 2009, Keever noticed several years ago that numerous sprinkler systems were showing signs of not being maintained.
Meanwhile, he noted a widespread practice of managers assigning possibly a couple tasks a day to employees, which would take up to two to four hours to accomplish, according to Keever’s lawsuit filed 2021. Then management would charge the Energy Department for up to 10 hours of costs for those two to four hours of work.
“Since 2016, Mr. Keever and the teams he has worked on were frequently idle; often working less than three to four hours per day. Yet, they were instructed to bill all ten hours and sometimes overtime to charge codes associated with the maintenance of the fire suppression systems. These fraudulent billing practices are ongoing,” the 2021 filing said.
Hanford Mission Integration Solutions also hired more employees than were needed for its maintenance work, the court filings said.
“Corporate fraud perpetrated upon the taxpayer at Hanford distracts from DOE’s vital clean up mission,” stated First Assistant U.S. Attorney for Eastern Washington Pete Serrano in a news release. “I hope every individual and business that contracts with the federal government sees this settlement and knows there’s a real risk of prosecution when the United States is defrauded.”
“Workers at the Hanford site were highly trained, specialized, and willing to provide a public service to keep our community safe. Management at the nuclear site derailed their ability, and it cost the taxpayer millions,” said Nikolas Peterson, executive director of Hanford Challenge, a Seattle-based watchdog organization, in a press release.
“Although the fraud aspect of this case is now final, the underlying safety concerns remain unresolved. We remain concerned about the quality and consistency of fire suppression system maintenance. If fire suppression systems at Hanford are unreliable, it’s not just a technical failure, it’s a systemic one,” he added.
This story first appeared on Washington State Standard.
