WASHINGTON – Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), an information technology and business services company, agreed to pay $1,370,000 to settle allegations that it solicited and received improper payments and other things of value on technology contracts with government agencies, the Department of Justice announced today. The settlement resolves an action against CSC under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. § 3730, filed by Norman J. Rille and Neal A. Roberts in September 2004. After an investigation, the Department of Justice joined the action.
The complaint alleged that CSC knowingly solicited and/or received payments of money and other things of value, known as alliance benefits, from a number of companies with whom it had global alliance relationships. The government intervened in these actions because the alliance relationships and resulting alliance benefits amount to kickbacks and undisclosed conflict of interest relationships in violation of contractual provisions and the applicable provisions of the Federal Acquisition Regulations.
The action against CSC is part of a larger ongoing investigation of government technology vendors and consultants that already resulted in the filing of complaints in April 2007 in Arkansas against Accenture, LLP (Accenture), Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) and Sun Microsystems Inc. (Sun). The qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act allow persons who file successful actions alleging fraud against the government to receive a share of any resulting recovery. Rille and Roberts will receive an amount to be determined in the near future.
The settlement resulted from an investigation by the Civil Division of the Department of Justice, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Little Rock, Ark., the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Energy, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the General Services Administration Office of the Inspector General, the NASA Office of the Inspector General, the Army Criminal Investigation Command, the Defense Contract Audit Agency and the Postal Service Office of the Inspector General.
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