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The government awards contracts to companies with histories of misconduct such as contract fraud and environmental, ethics, and labor violations. In the absence of a centralized federal database listing instances of misconduct, the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is providing such data. We believe that it will lead to improved contracting decisions and public access to information about how the government spends hundreds of billions of taxpayer money each year on goods and services. Report an instance of misconduct »

University of California

Mischarging of Labor Hours at LLNL

Date: 02/07/2004 (Date of Media Account)

Misconduct Type: Government Contract Fraud

Enforcement Agency: Energy

Contracting Party: Energy

Court Type: Civil

Amount: $3,897,366

Disposition: Settlement

Synopsis: The University of California agreed to pay almost $3.9 million to settle alleged False Claims Act violations involving charges for labor hours on energy research projects at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the 1990s. The government claimed that managers in the lab's energy research arm had inappropriately charged $2.2 million in overhead expenses to research projects funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. The case began when former lab employee Michelle Doggett told supervisors and university investigators of improper charges being made to energy research accounts. Doggett later sued the University for whistleblower retaliation and reached an out-of-court settlement for nearly $1 million. See related University of California instance, “Retaliation at LLNL (Doggett).”