A federal grand jury has returned indictments against 10 upper managers and supervisors for former Hanford tank farm contractor CH2M Hill Hanford Group for their alleged roles in enabling timecard fraud. Ryan Dodd, the former vice president of retrieval and closure operations for CH2M Hill; Terrence Hissong, the former tank farms management director; and Patrick Brannan, CH2M Hill’s base operations radiological control manager, were indicted on at least 32 counts each, including conspiracy, submission of false claims, major fraud, wire fraud and violation of the anti-kickback act. Two radiation control supervisors and five field work supervisors also were indicted.
Managers and supervisors are accused of participating in a scheme to offer and pay for overtime in eight-hour blocks, knowing that workers often would leave earlier. Court documents said that a 2004 internal audit questioned whether assigned overtime was being worked and recommended that proximity card readers be installed at various locations to help validate time records. An initial CH2M Hill management response agreed with the audit recommendation. But five months after the target implementation date, an unnamed upper manager, who has not been indicted, issued a final response to audit findings saying that the monitoring system would not be installed because of budget reductions and labor relations issues, according to documents filed in Eastern Washington District U.S. Court. In addition, a Voluntary Protect Program self-assessment report said that better control of workers was needed during the day because a steady stream of workers began leaving two hours early, according to court documents. CH2M Hill said in a statement that timecard fraud predated its tenure as tank farm contractor, but that it should have rooted out the conduct sooner.