A non-disclosure agreement that contractor KBR has made its employees sign might violate whistleblower protection and false claims laws and prevent its employees from reporting wrongdoing, a group of lawmakers wrote in letter Nov. 20.

Rep. Elijah Cummings, ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Rep. John Tierney, D-Mass., and Sen. Claire McCaskill, chairwoman of the Senate subcommittee on financial and contracting oversight, sent a letter to KBR CEO Stuart Bradie asking for more information about the non-disclosure agreements.

The lawmakers said the agreements prohibited employees from reporting wrongdoing without advance authorization from the KBR general counsel.

"The substance and potential enforcement of this non-disclosure agreement raises significant concerns about whether it violates the False Claims Act, whistleblower protection statutes, and the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement," the lawmakers wrote.

People who signed the agreement might believe they could not provide critical information about possible wrongdoing to Congress or inspectors general without facing negative consequences, the lawmakers wrote.

"The personalized nature of this non-disclosure agreement—signed and witnessed by two individuals during an in-person interview—combined with the coercive, explicit threat for failing to comply could chill potential whistleblowers who might report fraud, waste, or abuse involving U.S. taxpayer dollars," the lawmakers wrote.

The dispute is part of the ongoing fallout over the Army's LOGCAP II contract, the largest government services contract in history. While the Army has pushed to change the LOGCAP III pricing structure to a firm, fixed-price basis, KBR has sued to keep the closeout work under the existing cost-reimbursable arrangement.

The company says the cost-reimbursable model is better because neither the company nor the Army can estimate the scope or duration of closeout work. But the Army wants to close out the 12-year-old, $38 billion contract.

But lawmakers have pressed the company to turn over documents and answer questions related to the number and type of complaints filed by employees relating to the LOGCAP contract.

According to a deposition transcript filed earlier this year, the number of employee complaints received since 2003 relating to the LOGCAP contract alone are "probably pushing up to a thousand, maybe even more."

The lawmakers said while KBR has provided briefings on the subject and a limited number of documents in response to a previous letter sent in April, they wrote in the letter that KBR "failed to answer basic questions and address the serious concerns" about the non-disclosure agreements.

The lawmakers are demanding copies of all the non-disclosure agreements entered into by the company and all complaints submitted by employees or subcontractors from 2002 to the present, according to the letter.

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