The Louis Berger Group’s president, Larry D. Walker, says his company will emerge better from changes made because of investigations that culminated in a $69-million settlement with the U.S. Dept. of Justice announced on Nov. 5. He maintains the company discovered the overbilling targeted by investigators before the company became aware of the federal investigation and that the company began refunding $4 million to federal agencies. New internal controls and compliance and ethics programs will prevent a recurrence, he says.
The overcharging “goes back into the 1990s before the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts and was based on a methodology that was inappropriate,” says Walker. While about $19 million of the settlement is a criminal fine and about $50 million is a civil penalty, in excess of $10 million was actually overcharged to federal agencies, he points out.