by Ben Vernia | September 3rd, 2015
On September 2, the Department of Justice announced that Parsons Government Services (part of Pasadena, California – based Parsons Corp.) has agreed to pay $3.8 million to settle civil allegations that it overcharged the Department of Energy for employee relocation costs. According to DOJ’s press release in the non-whistleblower case:
Parsons Government Services Inc. has agreed to pay the United States $3.8 million to settle allegations that the company knowingly mischarged the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for ineligible or inflated short-term and long-term employee relocation costs in connection with its contract on the DOE Salt Waste Processing Facility Project (SWPF) at the DOE Savannah River Site in Aiken, South Carolina. Parsons is headquartered in Pasadena, California.
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Since Sept. 1, 2002, Parsons has been the primary construction contractor on the DOE’s SWPF project at the Savannah River Site. Pursuant to the terms of the SWPF contract, Parsons was entitled to be reimbursed for the payments it made to eligible employees for moving, meals, lodging and transportation expenses incurred when the employees were relocated or transferred by Parsons to work on the SWPF project in Aiken. In order to be entitled to reimbursement by the DOE, however, Parsons was required to take steps to ensure that the employees met certain contractual requirements of eligibility, such as maintaining a permanent residence at the location from which they were transferred. The United States alleged that Parsons sought and obtained reimbursement for these relocation expenses under the SWPF contract even for employees it knew did not qualify for these payments under the terms of the contract.
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