Washington, DC -Today, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, issued the following statement in response to an announcement by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that KBR, one of the nation’s largest government contractors, used confidentiality agreements that had the potential to “muzzle" whistleblowers:
“I have been investigating KBR’s problematic nondisclosure agreements for the past year, along with Senator McCaskill and others. During that time, KBR has refused to provide Congress with hundreds of complaints it received over the past decade from its own employees regarding potential waste, fraud, or abuse in the company’s government contracts for work in Iraq and elsewhere. Today’s action is a strong step forward for whistleblowers, and it should be commended, but it does not eliminate KBR’s responsibility to the American taxpayers to provide critical information about its actions."
Exactly one year prior to yesterday’s announcement by the SEC, Cummings sent a joint letter with Rep. John Tierney to KBR’s CEO requesting all complaints submitted to KBR from employees, subcontractors, or other individuals from 2002 to the present. In November, Cummings sent an additional letter with Tierney and Senator Claire McCaskill after the company declined to produce the requested documents.
