Federal contractor cheating on time sheets, etc

[Anonymous]

I worked for two federal contractors and both cheated on time. At one job, my boss said they wanted warm bodies in seats so they could charge. My boss didn’t care if I had work to do or not.

In one job, I had to fill in a time sheet and promise I had done the work involved. If I didn’t, I’d be fired. In the other, the company handled it.

I never felt good about about not having enough work to do and would work very slowly. My colleagues did the same and one could spend 30-60 minutes crafting a simple email. I eventually resigned from the jobs.

But now I see a woman took Booz Allen to court over their falsifying info to earn money from the government.

This woman will earn $70 million for bringing the issue to the Justice Department.

I never knew I could turn in the company. One was worse than other and I’d have loved to have them be held accountable.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/08/26/defense-contractor-booz-allen-hamilton/

[Anonymous]

There was a John Grisham book about this type of whistleblower and how they get a certain percent of the money the government is owed. Good for this woman!

[Anonymous]

This really surprises me. I work for a federal contractor and haven’t seen this at all. There is a strong emphasis on accurate timesheets. We have annual trainings and regular reminders from management. They talk about how falsification could have huge repercussions for the company. I’ve worked there over 10 years and have not heard of this happening at all on the teams I’ve worked with. It’s more the opposite, there’s a little bit of under reporting hours worked as people squeeze in more than allowed.

[Anonymous]

I bet OP works for an 8A contractor. Smaller team, smaller margins. No auditor/compliance person on staff.

[Anonymous]

She got a pretax payout of $42 million after lawyer fees. Not too bad.

[Anonymous]

This wasn’t a time and attendance type fraud she reported.

[Anonymous]

Omg. Former Booz Allen here. I left the company a few years ago because I’d had and seen enough.

I’ve always wanted to come forward with my experiences but have been too scared. I left because of pregnancy discrimination. I didn’t have the stomach to battle it out with HR or with an attorney. I’m in a much better place now and I hope other people who are seeing shady business practices are able to find an honest and supportive place to work.

[Anonymous]

How long ago OP? There is a 5 year statute of limitations usually.

[Anonymous]

This is the problem with LOE contracts and hiring contractors to fill seats/FTE. Federal agencies are trying to get away from doing this and are really encouraged to work from performance based work statements that don't require a certain amount of FTE, but it's taking some longer to implement it. This isn't entirely your employer's fault. If the contract is structured as firm fixed price and a certain amount of FTE has been agreed upon, the contractor gets paid what the contract says they get paid. It's on the government to make sure that price and the LOE involved is appropriate for the work. There can be some descoping if needed, but that in itself can get really complicated and may require the work to be re-competed. There's more to it than you think.

[Anonymous]

The case you’re talking about had to do with billing at a higher rate for government contracts to offset commercial sector losses. Nothing like what you describe.

If the government got what it contracted for (i.e. 40 hours a week of butts in seats), the number of hours you spent productively are somewhat irrelevant. If you delivered the requested work product in half of the hours contracted for, it doesn’t matter. You aren’t breaking the law by meeting the terms of the contract. If the government wants to pay you to sit and do nothing, that’s their problem. It’s not fraud. It’s just waste.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How long ago OP? There is a 5 year statute of limitations usually.

Too long ago.

OP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The case you’re talking about had to do with billing at a higher rate for government contracts to offset commercial sector losses. Nothing like what you describe.

If the government got what it contracted for (i.e. 40 hours a week of butts in seats), the number of hours you spent productively are somewhat irrelevant. If you delivered the requested work product in half of the hours contracted for, it doesn’t matter. You aren’t breaking the law by meeting the terms of the contract. If the government wants to pay you to sit and do nothing, that’s their problem. It’s not fraud. It’s just waste.

That makes me feel better. Thank you.

I used my down time to learn new skills and switched to a different career.

Our computers were so ancient we could not get the internet so it was quite boring.

OP

[Anonymous]

This does not surprise me nor do the comments made surprise me either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How long ago OP? There is a 5 year statute of limitations usually.

Depends. Since it's the gov't involved as the "injured" party, they can set their own rules.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The case you’re talking about had to do with billing at a higher rate for government contracts to offset commercial sector losses. Nothing like what you describe.

If the government got what it contracted for (i.e. 40 hours a week of butts in seats), the number of hours you spent productively are somewhat irrelevant. If you delivered the requested work product in half of the hours contracted for, it doesn’t matter. You aren’t breaking the law by meeting the terms of the contract. If the government wants to pay you to sit and do nothing, that’s their problem. It’s not fraud. It’s just waste.

I thought it was fraud, waste, and abuse.