NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT (BNO NEWS) – The Morganti Group, Inc., a Danbury, Connecticut construction company, entered on Tuesday into a civil settlement agreement with the U.S. Government to pay $800,000 to solve allegations of false documents submitted for bidding on two projects, prosecutors announced.

In 2000, Morganti violated the False Claims Act, the Foreign Assistance Act, and the common law by submitting false pre-qualification documents required of contractors before bidding on two construction projects in Jordan. The projects were funded in part by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

In February 2000, Morganti submitted a pre-qualification application to the USAID for the Greater Amman Water Project in Jordan. The application specifically inquired whether the applicant had ever failed during a specified time frame to complete any work awarded to it.

The Danbury company said it has never failed to complete any work and was eventually awarded the contract for the Jordanian project. Morganti also applied in March 2002 for the USAID's Aqaba Water Project.

In both applications, Morganti failed to disclose that in April 1997, the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) terminated a construction contract with a wholly-owned subsidiary of Morganti.

The False Claims Act establishes penalties of $5,500 to $11,000 per false claim submitted. On the other hand, the Foreign Assistance Act prohibits the submission of false claims to the government for payment from funds intended for foreign assistance. The damages provision of this statute provides for a penalty of either double damages or 50 percent of the contract amount.

In entering the settlement, Morganti denied any liability and avoided a lawsuit against the company's pre-qualification applications for both projects. Also, Morganti has implemented a government compliance program that was found acceptable by USAID.

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