Washington Closure Hanford has asked a federal judge for summary judgment in the Department of Justice case accusing the former Energy Department cleanup contractor of falsely claiming credit for awarding three subcontracts to women-owned small businesses.
A hearing on the motion filed in U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington is set for Jan. 12 at the federal courthouse in Richland, Wash., and a jury trial is set for June 25. Other plaintiffs named in the Justice Department case recently have reached settlement agreements.
Washington Closure argues it did not knowingly claim credit under its DOE contract for subcontract awards to disadvantaged businesses that the DOJ claims were actually fronts or pass-through organizations to a business ineligible for the subcontracts at the Hanford Site. The False Claims Act stipulates that a violation of the act must be intentional, according to Washington Closure. The company also says the subcontracts likely would not have affected the fee it was awarded under the Hanford River Corridor Contract, which expired after 11 years in September 2016 with the majority of the Columbia River corridor remediation completed.
The Department of Justice case focuses on two subcontracts awarded to Sage Tec, valued at about $20 million total, and $2.8 million of work order modifications to a subcontract awarded to Phoenix Northwest Enterprises. Both represented themselves as small, woman-owned businesses.
Phoenix was awarded a $4 million subcontract in 2009 to haul contaminated waste to Hanford’s Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility. The subcontract was challenged and the Small Business Administration ruled that Phoenix, which was formed just four months earlier by an employee of Federal Engineers & Constructors (FE&C), was affiliated with FE&C and not eligible for the subcontract as advertised.
Sage Tec was awarded a subcontract worth about $4.5 million in 2010 to dig up chromium-contaminated soil and a $15 million subcontract two years later for general cleanup work in the Hanford 300 Area. Washington Closure said it relied on the self-certification both times by Sage Tec as a small, woman-owned business, a practice approved by DOE. In addition, DOE signed off on the $15 million subcontract award, because of its size, Washington Closure said. It had no reason to doubt Sage Tec qualified as a small, woman-owned business because the owner, Laura Shikashio, was well known at Hanford, after working there for DOE and other contractors.
