What kinds of cases involve lack of compliance with contract specifications?

There are two types of cases involving lack of compliance with contract specifications. The more traditional case involves delivering a substandard part, as in a product substitution case. The contract may require, for example, compliance with testing requirements set forth in a standard Military Specification set forth by number and paragraph in the contract. Failure to test or failure to test in compliance with the contract’s Mil Spec requirements would likely result in the submission of false claims to the Government.

The second type of case involves a wide variety of situations wherein a contractor may fail to fulfill certain Government contract requirements. Each Government contract contains pages of requirements that might appear not to particularly affect how a product or service is provided to the Government. That is, the contracts require that the contractor promise compliance with a wide variety of national laws and policies. Among the provisions found in Government contracts are those requiring compliance with the Service Contract Act, Walsh-Healy Act, Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, Buy American and Trade Agreements Acts, Anti-Kickback Act, etc. Said otherwise, the Government requires that its contractors abide by the law in producing and delivering goods and services that are paid for with taxpayer dollars. Thus, a contractor providing personal services must fulfill the minimum/prevailing wage and employee benefits provisions required by the Service Contract Act. (See Lugbill, Ann and Guttman, Reuben A., “The False Claims Act: Holding Employers Accountable for Workplace Rights,” Employee Rights Quarterly (Aspen, Autumn 2000).)

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