Tetra Tech EC Inc, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tetra Tech, Inc, paid $57 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations that it fabricated work and falsified data the U.S. Department of the Navy relied on to determine whether the former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard (HPNS) in the San Francisco Bay was free from harmful radiation.
In a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the government alleged that, pursuant to contracts issued by the navy between 2003 and 2014, Tetra Tech was required to investigate the soil and buildings at HPNS and to remediate any areas where radiation was excessive so that the property could be transferred to the City of San Francisco for redevelopment.
The government alleged that Tetra Tech instructed field technicians to discard soil samples collected from potentially contaminated locations, replace the discarded samples with “clean” soil known to satisfy the release criteria, and to submit the replaced samples for laboratory analysis.
The complaint further alleged that Tetra Tech intentionally manipulated scan results in its database that falsely represented that scans taken at different locations were conducted by the same technician at the same time.
The government alleged that Tetra Tech benefited from this misconduct by receiving unearned contract award fees and avoiding obligations to perform additional remediation work, thereby decreasing its costs and increasing its profits.
“We expect companies contracting with the government to do business honestly and fairly,” said assistant attorney general Brett Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “This settlement demonstrates the Department’s continuing commitment to hold accountable those who fail to fulfill their responsibilities in providing services to the U.S. military.”
By falsifying work claims and manipulating critical data, Tetra Tech put its own financial interests ahead of its commitments to the Department of the Navy, potentially placing the health and safety of the American people at risk, according to acting special agent in charge Brian Merkal of the NCIS Economic Crimes Field Office.