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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 »

Northrop Grumman

August 2010 Virginia Government Computer Outage

Date: 05/19/2011 (Date of Fine Announcement)

Misconduct Type: Poor Contract Performance

Enforcement Agency: State/Local

Contracting Party: State/Local

Court Type: N/A

Amount: $4,998,000

Disposition: Fine

Synopsis: Northrop Grumman, under contract with the Commonwealth of Virginia to manage the state’s information technology infrastructure, paid almost $5 million in financial compensation and operational improvements for an August 2010 computer outage that paralyzed state executive agency computers for days. Northrop Grumman will provide monthly invoice credits totaling $1.908 million, spend $2.09 million on improvements to the computer system, and will implement remedial actions valued at approximately $750,000. The company also paid $250,000 for the cost of an independent third-party audit, which blamed the outage and resulting damages on technical failure and human error on the part of Northrop. See related Northrop Grumman instance, “Virginia IT Contract Audit Report.”