A federal district judge in Washington state has set a May 16 scheduling conference to start addressing pre-trial issues in a False Claims Act complaint against the Department of Energy’s Leidos-led landlord contractor at the Hanford Site in Washington state.
U.S. District Judge Stanley Bastian scheduled the video conference to start determining issues where the Department of Justice, which represents DOE and the interests of a whistleblower, and lawyers for Hanford Mission Integration Solutions, stand on jurisdiction, venue and legal standing, according to an April 4 order in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington.
The district judge also wants to know if lawyers in the case would agree to have preliminary matters considered by a federal magistrate judge.
A Department of Justice complaint, spawned by a whistleblower’s allegations, accuses Hanford Mission Integration Solutions, made up of Leidos, Centerra and Parsons, of overbilling DOE by millions of dollars while failing to properly carry out fire safety work at the nuclear cleanup site. The contractor has denied the allegations and urged the U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington to throw out the case.
In January, the Justice Department publicly filed a complaint, based on previously-sealed allegations by Bradley Keever, a Hanford fire systems maintenance worker. Keever initially took his concerns to Hanford Challenge, a Seattle-based advocacy group.
The suit charges the contractor fraudulently inflated its bills to DOE while leaving certain key chores, such as inspecting key fire systems, undone.
