Defense
contractors are companies or individuals who offer goods and services to the
military of United States. When those companies or individuals betray the
government to get under served payments, these people might be committing a
defense contractor fraud. Since this is a violation, severe action needs to be
taken. Every year, the national security is getting weakened and millions of
dollars are mislaid because of the false schemes of the defense contractors. Thus,
it is very important to make people aware of the defense contractor fraud. This
will help the people to come forward with the claims.
General Types of Defense
Contractor Fraud
The defense contractor fraud normally engages
misleading government about the product quality and its cost that is being
supplied. For an instance, a company might ensure the government about the
vehicles that they are buying are bulletproof and are available at a high price
of two hundred dollars, whereas actually it does not offer any added protection
and hardly worth around fifty dollars. In such scenario, knowledgeable defense contract fraud attorneys can
become a help.
Whilst
there are myriad methods a defense contractor can seek to acquire unlawful
government funds, here are some of the common fraud schemes that is included.
- Inappropriate Cost Allocation:Improper allocation of cost happen when any company enters into a commercial and government contract at the same time. If that same company works on commercial contract but charge government for the time spent, is a serious issue. It is a False Claims Act and might be found responsible for improper cost allocation.
- Cross Charging:This is another situation and a serious crime. It generally occurs in case a defense contractor tries to enter in many contracts with variable payment terms, “cost-plus” and “fixed-price”. When the contract is fixed priced, the company engaged, acquires a fixed price for their services and goods irrespective of the production cost. In the scenario of a cost-plus contract, government gives the cost of goods to the company and also the cost percentage as a profit. In case the company asks the government the charges they spent while working on “fixed price” contract to “cost plus” contract, it means charging for the same service for more than one time. This is a type of fraud and is called as cross charging.
- Product Substitution:When it is product substitution, a substitute is being provided by the company. The substitute offered is generally inferior to the good on which it is signed or agreed on. If any company substitutes the goods without even asking for permission from the government contracting officers, it is a serious type of violation.
How the Defense
Contract Fraud Attorneys can help:
Apart from costing billions of dollars per year, these types
of frauds can certainly weaken the national security and also endangers the
women and servicemen. For such reasons, there is always a necessity for a
knowledgeable person, who has enough knowledge. Skilled defense contract fraud attorneys can certainly become beneficial. In
addition to this they can also help to claim compensation and recover the lost
funds.
