WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) – The Justice Department announced that URS E & C Holdings Inc. will pay $9 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations.
The company is a successor in interest to Washington Group International Inc. (WGI), a global design and construction company. The alleged false claims had to with United States Agency for International Development (USAID) contracts, specifically water and wastewater infrastructure projects in the Arab Republic of Egypt in the 1990s. A contract was given to WGI, Contrack International Inc. and Misr Sons Development S.A.E. (HAS). Contrack and HAS allegedly didn’t provide notice that they were partners in the venture before the awarding of the contract. USAID could thus not conduct a proper evaluation into their qualifications, and this makes the contract ineligible.
“Contractors who misrepresent their eligibility for government contracts undermine the government procurement process,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, said. “The Justice Department will take action to protect that process and to ensure that taxpayer funds are not misused.”
Working together on this settlement were the Department of Department of Justice, Civil Division, Commercial Litigation Branch; the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Idaho; and the USAID Office of Inspector General.