Our Office examined payments the Office for Technology (OFT) made to Unisys Corporation (Unisys) for consulting services under contract C000190. The objective of our examination was to determine whether OFT paid Unisys the correct hours and rates for qualified consultants. We found OFT managers did not ensure that consultants met the education and/or work experience qualifications specified in the contract. Managers instead placed unfounded reliance on written affirmations from Unisys that all consultants met or exceeded contract qualifications. However, we found Unisys did not validate the accuracy of any consultant’s education and work experience before signing the affirmations. As a result, OFT paid Unisys $471,845 for 6 consultants who did not meet the contract qualifications, $1.7 million for 17 other consultants whose resumes did not have sufficient information to support Unisys’ affirmation, and $568,658 for 5 consultants whose names differed on documents Unisys provided (e.g., education documents, written affirmations, and/or invoices). In its response, OFT stated it (i) would require Unisys to provide documentation to support that all the consultants on the contract meet the minimum qualifications; (ii) has determined the amount and specific time period for which consultants were not qualified under the contract, and (iii) will recover an appropriate amount from Unisys for unqualified consultants.
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