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U.S. Government Matters | 6 Months Ended
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Jun. 30, 2021
United States Government Contract Work [Abstract] |
U.S. Government Matters | U.S. Government Matters We provide services to various U.S. governmental agencies, including the U.S. DoD, NASA, and the Department of State. We may have disagreements or experience performance issues on our U.S. government contracts. When performance issues arise under any of these contracts, the U.S. government retains the right to pursue various remedies, including challenges to expenditures, suspension of payments, fines and suspensions or debarment from future business with the U.S. government. The negotiation, administration and settlement of our contracts are subject to audit by the DCAA. The DCAA serves in an advisory role to the DCMA, which is responsible for the administration of the majority of our contracts. The scope of these audits includes, among other things, the validity of direct and indirect incurred costs, provisional approval of annual billing rates, approval of annual overhead rates, compliance with the FAR and CAS, compliance with certain unique contract clauses and audits of certain aspects of our internal control systems. Based on the information received to date, we do not believe any completed or ongoing government audits will have a material adverse impact on our results of operations, financial position or cash flows. Legacy U.S. Government Matters Between 2002 and 2011, we provided significant support to the U.S. Army and other U.S. government agencies in support of the war in Iraq under the LogCAP III contract. We have been in the process of closing out the LogCAP III contract since 2011, and we expect the contract closeout process to continue for at least another year. As a result of our work under LogCAP III, there are claims and disputes pending between us and the U.S. government that need to be resolved in order to close the contract. The contract closeout process includes resolving objections raised by the U.S. government through a billing dispute process referred to as Form 1s and MFRs. We continue to work with the U.S. government to resolve these issues and are engaged in efforts to reach mutually acceptable resolution of these outstanding matters. However, for certain of these matters, we have filed claims with the ASBCA or the COFC. We also have matters related to ongoing litigation or investigations involving U.S. government contracts. We anticipate billing additional labor, vendor resolution and litigation costs as we resolve the open matters in the future. The Company established a reserve for unallowable costs associated with open government matters related to the heritage KBR U.S. Government Services business in the amounts of $33 million as of June 30, 2021, and December 31, 2020, and are recorded in “Other liabilities.” Investigations, Qui Tams and Litigation The following matters relate to ongoing litigation or federal investigations involving U.S. government contracts. Many of these matters involve allegations of violations of the FCA, which prohibits in general terms fraudulent billings to the U.S. government. Suits brought by private individuals are called "qui tams." We believe the costs of litigation and any damages that may be awarded in the FKTC matters described below are billable under the LogCAP III. All costs billed under LogCAP III are subject to audit by the DCAA for reasonableness. First Kuwaiti Trading Company arbitration. In April 2008, FKTC, one of our LogCAP III subcontractors providing housing containers, filed for arbitration with the American Arbitration Association all its claims under various LogCAP III subcontracts. After complete hearings on all claims, the arbitration panel awarded FKTC $17 million plus interest for claims involving damages on lost or unreturned vehicles. In addition, we determined that we owe FKTC $32 million in connection with other subcontracts provided we are reimbursed for these same costs by the U.S. government. We lost our claims against the government as referenced below and have exercised our offset or clawback rights as against FKTC in the arbitration. FKTC does not agree with our right of offset and a final hearing will be needed to resolve this issue and our other counterclaims against FKTC. A hearing has been set for November 2021. Management accrued an amount that it feels is adequate to cover either liability as determined by the panel or a negotiated settlement with FKTC on this matter. Howard qui tam. In March 2011, Geoffrey Howard and Zella Hemphill filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois alleging that KBR mischarged the government $628 million for unnecessary materials and equipment. In October 2014, the DOJ declined to intervene and the case was partially unsealed. Depositions of some DCMA and KBR personnel have taken place and more were expected to occur in early 2020 but have been postponed due to COVID-19. KBR and the relators filed various motions including a motion to dismiss by KBR. Although KBR's motion to dismiss was not granted, it remains an option on appeal. The deadline for all fact discovery and depositions has been extended due to COVID-19 travel restrictions and related delays and discovery continues. We believe the allegations of fraud by the relators are without merit and, as of June 30, 2021, no amounts have been accrued. DOJ False Claims Act complaint - Iraq Subcontractor. In January 2014, the DOJ filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois against KBR and two former KBR subcontractors, including FKTC, alleging that three former KBR employees were offered and accepted kickbacks from these subcontractors in exchange for favorable treatment in the award and performance of subcontracts to be awarded during the course of KBR's performance of the LogCAP III contract in Iraq. The complaint alleges that as a result of the kickbacks, KBR submitted invoices with inflated or unjustified subcontract prices, resulting in alleged violations of the FCA and the Anti-Kickback Act. The DOJ's investigation dates back to 2004. We self-reported most of the violations and tendered credits to the U.S. government as appropriate. On May 22, 2014, FKTC filed a motion to dismiss, which the U.S. government opposed. Following the submission of our answer in April 2014, the U.S. government was granted a Motion to Strike certain affirmative defenses in March 2015. We do not believe this limits KBR's ability to fully defend all allegations in this matter. Discovery for this complaint is now mostly complete. On March 30, 2020, the Court granted KBR’s motion to transfer the case to the Southern District of Texas and the court recently ruled on various discovery motions allowing one additional deposition to take place. KBR and the U.S government have filed various dispositive motions which remained under consideration by the Court for an extended period. In March 2021, while granting some of KBR’s motions for summary judgment, the court also concluded that we breached the FCA as a matter of law as to several subcontracts. We filed for two motions for reconsideration, one addressing the ruling on KBR’s motion for summary judgment and one addressing the U.S. government’s motion. A preliminary meeting was held and the Court issued a ruling on both motions, granting in part and denying in part on both motions. The Court also set a trial date for February 2022 and told the parties that no further motions would be considered. Despite that ruling, the Government filed a Motion of Clarification which is now pending. As of June 30, 2021, we have accrued our best estimate of probable loss related to an unfavorable settlement of this matter in "Other liabilities" on our condensed consolidated balance sheets. Other mattersKBR Contract Claim on FKTC containers. KBR previously filed a claim before the ASBCA to recover the costs paid to FKTC to settle its requests for equitable adjustment. The DCMA had disallowed the majority of those costs. Those contract claims were stayed in 2013 at the request of the DOJ so that they could pursue the FCA case referenced above. Those claims were reinstated in 2016. We tried our contract appeal in September 2017. In November 2018, we received an unfavorable ruling from the ASBCA disallowing all of our costs paid to FKTC. KBR's motion for reconsideration by a senior panel of judges at the ASBCA was denied. KBR filed its brief on appeal in September 2019. Oral arguments occurred in May 2020 and a decision was issued on September 1, 2020. Although the court agreed with KBR that the wrong legal standard was applied by the trial court, the appellate court made its own fact findings on damages based on an incomplete record and denied KBR any recovery. KBR filed a motion for rehearing which was denied and therefore the dispute with the U.S. government has concluded. As of June 30, 2021, we believe our recorded accruals are adequate to resolve this matter. We are in discussions with the U.S. government regarding payment.

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