Timothy T. Duax U.S. Attorney | U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa
Maximus, Inc., a government services contractor from Virginia, has agreed to pay $8 million to settle allegations of misleading the United States Census Bureau regarding its call handling quality during the 2020 Census. This settlement addresses claims made by whistleblowers under the federal False Claims Act.
The company operated several multi-lingual call centers across the U.S., handling incoming and outgoing calls related to Census operations. Maximus was contracted by the Census Bureau to evaluate the quality and accuracy of its call center operations. Quality monitors employed by Maximus were tasked with scoring calls based on data input accuracy and adherence to professional standards, as per an agreement with the Census Bureau. The contract included an "award fee" incentive for meeting specific goals, determined partly by these quality scores.
The U.S. government alleges that Maximus provided inaccurate or misleading score information to enhance perceptions of its work quality. It is claimed that Maximus encouraged selective scoring of calls to artificially boost reported quality scores, which led to higher award fees than warranted by accurate reporting.
Maximus cooperated with the investigation, and no liability was admitted or determined in this case. The lawsuit did not allege manipulation of census enumeration data collected by Maximus.
The lawsuit was filed under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act, allowing private citizens aware of fraud against the government to sue on behalf of the U.S. and share in any recovery. The whistleblowers involved will receive $1.2 million from the settlement.
United States Attorney Timothy T. Duax stated: “Government contractors must be honest and accurate in their reporting to their government partners... Our office is committed to holding accountable contractors that enrich themselves by misleading American taxpayers.”
Special Agent-in-Charge Eric Arcand from the Commerce-OIG remarked: “Census data informs policy and decision-making at all levels of government, and fraud affecting any aspect of the Census Bureau’s programs must not be tolerated... We also appreciate the Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Iowa’s efforts toward resolving this matter.”
