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Qui Tam

: Virginia Qui Tam Law

On the Topic of Transportation Fraud....

By Zachary A. Kitts

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Recently I mentioned state Sen. Obenschain's website addressing fraud, waste and abuse in the Virginia Department of Transportation. I wanted also to point out some excellent federal resources on the topic.

For a number of years, the OIG (that is, the Office of the Inspector General) of the U.S. Department of Transportation has maintained www.preventtransportationfraud.org which is the single best site I know of dealing with the topic of fraud in transportation contracts.

I say this is the best site because it provides a wide variety of specific information, including flyers addressing some of the specific types of wrongdoing that would subject a person to liability under the qui tam provisions of the Federal False Claims Act and the Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act.

Some examples:

Bid Rigging and Collusion;
Bribery;
Contractors who fail to perform quality control.

Anyone with first-hand, non-public information that their employer is engaging in any of these activities has the ability to become a qui tam relator. Qui tam relators generally do a public service by helping to enforce the law, by bringing information about wrongdoing to light, by helping to punish unethical businesses, and so forth. The area of transportation fraud, however, gives us an excellent example of how qui tam relators can help enforce laws relating to public safety.

Full post as published by Virginia Qui Tam Law on April 04, 2009 (boomark / email).