SUPERCOMPUTER DEFENSE CONTRACTORS PAY $30.26 MILLION FOR BID-RIGGING AT NASA

Several super computer makers doing work for NASA have agreed to pay a total of $30.26 million to settle a major whistleblower case which revealed bid rigging in the office of Navy Oceanograph Office (NAVO supercomputer center at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. The whistleblower suit charged that Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), Lockheed martin and Applied Enterprise solutions conspired with the Deputy Director of NAVO to rig the bidding process on a government contract valued at $3.2 billion. The contract was to establish and run a new National Center for Critical Information Processing Storage (NCCIPS). While the project was out for bid, SAIC, Lockheed and AES received and exchanged confidential contract procurement info from Stephen Adamec, Director of the NAVO super computer center, according to the complaint. This gave the companies an unfair advantage over other bidders. The whistleblower, David Magee a former supercomputer specialist at NAVO reported the matter internally but when nothing happened, he filed suit under the whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act. He will receive a percentage of the $30.26 as is allowed by law.