Management company settles for $18.4M after nuclear weapons plant staff fudged their timesheets

A company contracted to manage an Amarillo, Texas nuclear weapons facility has to pay US government $18.4 million in a settlement over allegations that its atomic technicians fudged their timesheets to collect more money from Uncle Sam. Consolidated Nuclear Security LLC (CNS) has managed the Pantex Plant since July 2014 and …

[Anonymous Coward]

This isn't new by any measure, it's been happening since private corporations undertook construction work for Manhattan and skimming using different methods enriched the bosses at Chelyabinsk. Any sort of secrecy at a job site makes oversight difficult.

[cyberdemon]

Well, that's one way of achieving NATO defence spending targets..

[alain williams]

Why not fine the individuals ...

who wrote lies on their time-sheets ?

Limited liability is, surely, for honest mistakes not fraud.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Why not fine the individuals ...

Employee of a gov't contractor -- hence anon.

Our employers make it quite clear during timecard/timesheet training that *any* misrepresentation is a federal offense, punishable both on individual (fines/jail) and company (fines/disbarment) levels. So it is an option if the feds want to pursue it.

[Numen]

K-25 enriched Uranium, not Y-12

There were three main atom bomb facilities in Oak Ridge, TN.

K-25 did the uranium enrichment, and is being cleaned up now

Y-12 was the assembly plant (my dad worked there for a while)

X-10 was engineering, which I believe grew into the Oak Ridge National Lab

[Zibob]

Should not be allowed

A fine with no admission of guilt should be illegal,

The fine is an admission of guilt, and they should bit be allowed to brush matters under the rug for a fee.

This applies to the general situation of fining with no guilt. It is deeply wrong to allow such a judgement to exist at all.

[Cav]

Re: Should not be allowed

It wasn't a fine. It was a settlement of over payment returned.

The company did nothing illegal and nothing even that was legal but morally wrong. They were incompetent, in not monitoring their staff adequately, but that isn't illegal. As soon as they found out what their employees had done, the company raised the issue with the authorities. The employees were fired and they should be charged with fraud but the company did nothing wrong at all. Basically, they just agreed that they owed the government repayment of funds paid for time not worked. The company brought the situation to the attention of government.

[nematoad]

"Taxpayers should never be on the hook for the cost of work that was not performed,"

Agreed, perhaps they should forward that the the US House of Representatives where the MAGA nutters seem to have pulled the same stunt.

Oh, apart from impeaching Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas without any proof of him committing any high crimes or misdemeanours.

[Howard Sway]

atomic technicians fudged their timesheets to collect more money

Considering the nature of their work, it would be wise to also check that these were the only things they were fudging.

[Innique]

Ex Enron Employees

Did they hire those ex Enron Employees? Hey Jeff do maintenance on tower three or change your timesheet to make us more money, sounds a lot alike.