A settlement has been reached in a whistleblower class action lawsuit brought against Contrack International Inc who is accused of submitting false claims in connection with U. S. Agency for International Development (USAID) contracts.
The settlement reached was to resolve allegatiosn by Contrack only. The government is continuing to pursue its claims against the other two defendants in the suit.
The originally suit was filed in 2004. The government's allegations against Contrack were in relation to The settlement concerns USAID-funded contracts for the construction of water and wastewater infrastructure projects in the Arab Republic of Egypt in the 1990s. The bidders for these contracts were required to receive prequalification and, in some cases, establish that they were U. S. companies. However, the contracts were ultimately performed by a joint venture partnership among Contrack; Washington Group International, Inc., a subsidiary of URS Corporation; and Misr Sons Development S.A.E. (Hassan Allam Sons), an Egyptian company. The government filed suit under the False Claims Act and the Foreign Assistance Act alleging that the joint venture partners evaded the prequalification requirement by concealing the identity of the joint venture partners, which prevented USAID from accurately evaluating their qualifications. As a result, the government alleged that Contrack and its partners received USAID-funded contracts for which they were ineligible.
