Recently obtained email messages indicate the Department of Justice might be investigating time-card issues involving the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) project at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state.
The investigation follows two settlements in recent years for alleged time-card fraud at the Hanford waste tank farms.
An email sent on July 27 from “Legal and Risk Management” notified undisclosed recipients of a preservation hold on information, including emails, regarding charging of labor, recording of time, and practices and procedures related to overtime dating to January 2009.
On July 31, another email was reportedly sent to undisclosed recipients from an attorney for Bechtel, which holds the contract to build and operate the “vit plant” that will convert liquid waste at Hanford into a solid glass form for permanent storage. “As you may be aware, the government is conducting an inquiry into certain time charging matters relating to the WTP project,” according to the email. It offered advice to workers, including that if contacted by federal investigators they had a right to speak to them or to decline. If they chose to meet with investigators, they could be accompanied by their own attorney or a Bechtel attorney, it said.
Another email was sent Aug. 4 from “Legal and Risk Management,” saying it was related “to a civil investigative demand regarding the WTP project, issued to Bechtel National, Inc., by the U.S. Department of Justice.” The email contained a longer list of information to be saved, encompassing documents concerning Bechtel’s billing, charge, fee, and profit related to labor charges; documents concerning management’s executive compensation; and document concerning contracts, agreements, and negotiations with union building construction trades. It also listed the service of a search warrant and interviews requested by the DOE Office of Inspector General since June 20.
The Department of Justice does not discuss ongoing investigations and Bechtel and DOE had no comment.
In 2013, CH2M agreed to pay the federal government $18.5 million to settle civil and criminal allegations of time-card fraud from 2005 to 2008 when it held the Hanford tank farm contract. Four years later, the contractor that replaced CH2M at the tank farms, Washington River Protection Solutions, agreed to pay $5.3 million to settle allegations of time-card fraud, but denied any wrongdoing. Both tank farm contractors were accused of offering employees overtime work in eight-hour shifts but allowing them to go home when tasks were completed. Workers charged the full eight hours pay at time and a half or double time, according to court documents.
