A company contracted to provide fire protection at the Hanford Nuclear Site submitted millions of dollars in fraudulent and inflated invoices to the federal government since 2021, according to a False Claims Act complaint filed Wednesday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The complaint was originally brought by whistleblower Bradley Keever, a sprinkler fitter in the fire protection group at Hanford Mission Integration Solutions, LLC, which was the contractor that provided the fire protection services.
Federal investigators took up the allegations, resulting in the filing Wednesday of the False Claims Act complaint.
Hanford is a 580-square-mile facility near the Tri-Cities established in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project. The testing done at the facility resulted in a hazardous materials pollution problem that government officials have not been able to solve for decades.
Hanford Mission Integration Solutions is owned by three large government contracting companies: Leidos Integrated Technology in Reston, Va.; Centerra Group, LLC in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.; and Parsons Government Services in Centreville, Va.
The company has held the multi-billion-dollar Hanford Mission Essential Services contract since January 2021. Part of the contract is to provide fire protection and fire systems management services for Hanford, which protects the public from both fire and potential radiological hazards.
The complaint alleges that between January 2021 and October 2023, the company...
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