Federal employees as well as people who work for companies that contract with the government have access to important information about the goods and services that the contractor is providing. In some cases, that information may indicate that the government contractor is defrauding the country.

If you uncover signs that this is going on, you can blow the whistle on it. By reporting the evidence to law enforcement or pursuing a whistleblower case on your own, you can protect the country, save taxpayer money, hold a federal employee responsible, and provide a crucial public service, all while having your job protected. You may even recover a share of the financial penalties that get imposed.

Here is what you need to know about the process.

The Many Forms of Government Contractor Fraud

• Fraud can happen in a huge variety of ways when personal services contractors or companies contract with the state or the federal government. Nearly every contract or agreement to provide goods or services creates the opportunity for a party to lie and deceive the other party to pad their bottom line, and agreements with government contractors are no exception. While there are numerous ways to commit fraud, just a few common types of government contractor fraud are:

• Providing less than what was agreed upon while billing the same amount
• Submitting duplicate bills
• Agreeing to use specific materials or methods, but then using lesser alternatives without mentioning it
• Billing the government for services or goods that were not provided at all

• However, whistleblowers are not confined to making claims related to fraud. Instead, federal whistleblower laws also provide an avenue for reporting:

• Gross financial waste or personnel mismanagement
• Abuse of authority
• Significant dangers to public safety or health

Whistleblowers can report these types of misconduct from within the federal government or from inside the company that contracts with the government.

Whistleblowers are Legally Protected from Workplace Retaliation

Because blowing the whistle on otherwise hidden misconduct is such an important public service, several federal laws protect whistleblowers from workplace retaliation for their conduct.

The Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989 is the law that protects federal employees who blow the whistle on a legal violation or regulation related to a federal contract, as well as abuse of authority relating to a federal contract, gross mismanagement or federal funds waste, personnel mismanagement, or actions that may cause substantial and specific danger to public health.

While this law only applies to employees in federal agencies, the National Defense Authorization Act extended those protections to employees of federal contractors, a personal services contractor, or even subcontractors who do business with the federal government.

Additionally, whistleblower claims that focus on government contractor fraud generally proceeds under the False Claims Act (31 U.S.C. §§ 3729 et seq.). This law has its anti-retaliation provisions.

Together, these laws insulate whistleblowers from personnel actions or adverse employment decisions like:

• Termination
• Suspension
• Demotion
• Refusals to promote
• Negative reassignments or transfers
• Reduction in benefits or negative actions related to your working conditions or responsibilities

If your employer takes one of these actions and that decision is connected to your whistleblowing endeavor, you have legal recourse. This typically comes in the form of a wrongful termination lawsuit, which can recover back wages and sometimes even reinstatement to your former role.

Where to Report Fraud or Waste

Those anti-retaliation protections, however, may only get triggered if you move your whistleblower case forward in an appropriate way. For example, whistleblower allegations only trigger the Whistleblower Protection Act if the protected disclosure is reported to any of the following people or entities:

• An Inspector General
• A Member of Congress
• The Government Accountability Office (GAO)
• An authorized official of a federal law enforcement agency, such as the Department of Justice (DOJ) or other law enforcement agency
• A federal employee at the relevant government agency who is responsible for a federal contract or grant oversight or management
• A court
• A grand jury
• An employee or management official with investigative responsibilities at the government contractor or subcontractor

While this list casts a wide net, whistleblowers need to take care to ensure that they report their findings to someone on it, or else they can leave themselves exposed to workplace retaliation.

How Whistleblower Claims Unfold

Exactly how a whistleblower case unfolds will depend on the nature of the allegations, as well as which laws the claim invokes. However, they generally move forward in the following manner when they involve misconduct by a government contractor:

• The whistleblower notices signs of misconduct, typically while at work either in a federal agency or with a private company that contracts with the government
• The whistleblower gathers more evidence, becomes convinced that it is evidence of fraud or some other form of misconduct, and decides to blow the whistle on it
• He or she hires a whistleblower lawyer
• Together, the whistleblower and their legal team conducts an investigation, gathers more evidence, and builds their case
• Once the case is strong enough, they disclose it to an appropriate audience, often a federal law enforcement agency
• The person or party hearing the whistleblower claim then decides whether to take the investigation over or not

If the recipient of your claim chooses to intervene, then they will take over the investigation and address a judicial or administrative proceeding, leaving relatively little for you and your legal team to do. At this point, you may receive a whistleblower award for bringing the information forward.

If they choose to not intervene, though, you and your legal team can still advance the whistleblower case on your own. However, this means that you and your lawyers will be responsible for conducting the entire investigation without government assistance.

You Can Recover a Share of the Verdict or Settlement

In order to incentivize whistleblowers who have information about fraud by government contractors, federal law often entitles them to a share of what gets recovered. Particularly when claims advance under the False Claims Act, which imposes treble damages on fraudulent conduct, this can be quite substantial.

“Depending on the information provided, the number of whistleblowers, and especially on whether the government intervenes in your case or not, whistleblowers with a claim under the False Claims Act can get anywhere between 10 and 30 percent of the amount that gets recovered in a verdict or settlement. If the amount defrauded was significant, and it then gets tripled under the False Claims Act, this can result in a massive whistleblower award.” – Dr. Nick Oberheiden, founding partner of the national whistleblower firm for government contractors, Oberheiden P.C.