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Nov. 19, 2006
Workers contend contractors defrauded government in cleanup
Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio - A four-year-old lawsuit unsealed last month contends
contractors cleaning up a Cold War uranium-enrichment plant in southern
Ohio were
paid millions of dollars for shoddy work or work that was not done.

The lawsuit, filed by four workers, accuses Bechtel-Jacobs Co. and
Safety and
Ecology Corp. of falsifying work records, taking shortcuts and failing
to
protect the health of workers and neighbors of the Portsmouth Gaseous
Diffusion
Plant. The facility, near Piketon, about 60 miles south of Columbus,
produced
enriched uranium for 50 years and closed in 2001.

The workers - Philip Borris, Michael Eversole, Rodney Gossett and
Thomas
McDermott - filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court using a Civil
War-era law
designed to nab suppliers cheating the government. The case was kept
secret while
the Department of Justice investigated. It recently decided not to join
in.

"The Department of Justice lawyers have made it clear to us they have
found
plenty wrong, but they are having a hard time getting the support of
the
Department of Energy to make their case," said Charles Fitzpatrick, an
attorney for
the workers.

The U.S. attorney's office found no criminal intent to deceive the
government, said spokesman Fred Alverson in Columbus. "That doesn't
mean one way or
another that contractual obligations were kept or not kept, whether
overpayments
were made or not made."

Borris, a radiation-control worker, said the four sued on behalf of the
government because the Energy Department would not listen to their
complaints.

An Energy Department spokeswoman disagreed. "We take every employee
complaint
seriously," said Megan Barnett, a spokeswoman in Washington.

The contractors have not been served with the lawsuit and would not
comment,
their spokesmen said. The companies are no longer at the plant.

The workers estimate overpayments total tens of millions of dollars.

The four say contractors labeled large amounts of non-radioactive
fencing
shipped offsite as scrap metal contaminated with radiation to collect a
performance payment, charged for unnecessary work or work not
performed, billed the
government for nongovernment work and ignored health and safety
regulations.

Based on the False Claims Act, the lawsuit asks for three times the
amount of
actual loss to the government. If the workers win, they would receive
25
percent to 30 percent of the award. The suit also seeks a civil penalty
of $5,000
to $10,000 per violation plus damages and attorney fees.

Gossett, a health and safety worker, and others in the business say
problems
slip because the Energy Department has fewer people monitoring
contractors
than before.

Fitzpatrick said for the Energy Department to recoup money, the agency
would
have to admit that it failed to watch the companies.