Donald Shubert’s recent CT Viewpoints commentary opposing the current proposal to extend Connecticut’s False Claims Act (the “CT FCA”) to industries beyond health care reflects the tried-and-true tactic of business interests hoping to avoid accountability: resort to fear-mongering and unsubstantiated claims, and hope nobody is paying attention.
Shubert, the President of the Connecticut Construction Industries Association, writes that expanding the CT FCA to other industries like construction will lead to higher costs for businesses while failing to protect state coffers. But Shubert is wrong on both the law and the facts.
First, Shubert argues that “[t]he loose legal standards of the FCA are remarkably problematical when applied to construction disputes.” In reality, the federal False Claims Act (“FCA”), on which the CT FCA is based, has proven to be a valuable tool in fighting fraud in the construction industry.
For example, just last year, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut announced a $3.2 million dollar settlement with a contractor based on fraud committed by the company in connection with public construction contracts in Connecticut that were principally funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation. The legal standards of the FCA worked just fine for the Department of Justice in combatting contractor fraud. The same would be true under the CT FCA’s identical legal standards.
Second, Shubert argues that the legislation fails to define the words “...
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