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Contractor's Report to OIG Insufficient to Trigger Public Disclosure Bar

Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 03.27.14

In U.S. ex rel Saunders v. Unisys Corp. (E.D. Va.), the court found that the relator's FCA claim was not precluded by the public disclosure bar despite the defendant providing its internal investigation report to OIG because (1) the report failed to reveal allegations or transactions creating an inference of fraud (its conclusion that the alleged fraudulent billing practices were "unacceptable" was not enough) and (2) it was made available only to the DOD IG and the government agency overseeing the contract and not the general public.


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Client Alert | 4 min read | 10.30.26

Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right: GAO Sustains Protest Where Agency Tried to Fix PIA Violation with a Second PIA Violation

Recent sustain decisions by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) in Fluor Federal Solutions, LLC and Reliance Test & Technology send a clear message: when an agency tries to fix a Procurement Integrity Act (PIA) violation by committing a second one, the cure can be just as fatal as the disease. The cases involved the U.S. Air Force’s $1.8 billion procurement for O&M services at Elgin Air Force Base. During discussions, the Air Force inadvertently released a pricing overview slide with all offerors’ bottom-line evaluated costs to Reliance Test & Technology, which immediately notified the agency of the error. In response, the Air Force decided to level the playing field by providing the same information to all the other offerors in the procurement, stating, “[o]fferors may consider this disclosure in their [final proposal revision].”...