The Justice Department Friday said that Lucent
Technologies Worldwide, a subsidiary of Alcatel-Lucent, has agreed to pay $4.2
million to settle allegations it had inaccurately claimed to have completed
tests of the operation of the Army's emergency communications system in Iraq.
Lucent
won a quarter-billion-dollar contract to design and build a first responder net
for police, fire and medical assistance.
The
settlement was to resolve a whistleblower suit filed by the former contract
manager for the project. He will receive $758,000 of the settlement for blowing
that whistle.
"The
integrity of our public contracting system is a matter of paramount concern to
the Department of Justice, especially where contractors have been engaged to
supply critical support for the work of stabilizing Iraq and Afghanistan," said
Stuart Delery, acting assistant attorney general for the DOJ's Civil Division.
