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U.S. Government Matters
 12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2019
United States Government Contract Work [Abstract]  
U.S. Government Matters U.S. Government Matters

We provide services to various U.S. governmental agencies, including the U.S. DoD, NASA, and the Department of State. We may have disagreements or experience performance issues on our U.S. government contracts. When performance issues arise under any of these contracts, the U.S. government retains the right to pursue various remedies, including challenges to expenditures, suspension of payments, fines and suspensions or debarment from future business with the U.S. government. The negotiation, administration and settlement of our contracts are subject to audit by the DCAA. The DCAA serves in an advisory role to the DCMA which is responsible for the administration of the majority of our contracts. The scope of these audits include, among other things, the validity of direct and indirect incurred costs, provisional approval of annual billing rates, approval of annual overhead rates, compliance with the FAR and CAS, compliance with certain unique contract clauses and audits of certain aspects of our internal control systems. Based on the information received to date, we do not believe the completed or any ongoing government audits will have a material adverse impact on our results of operations, financial position or cash flows.

Legacy U.S. Government Matters

Between 2002 and 2011, we provided significant support to the U.S. Army and other U.S. government agencies in support of the war in Iraq under the LogCAP III contract. We have been in the process of closing out the LogCAP III contract since 2011, and we expect the contract closeout process to continue for at least another year. As a result of our work under LogCAP III, there are claims and disputes pending between us and the U.S. government which need to be resolved in order to close the contract. The contract closeout process includes resolving objections raised by the U.S. government through a billing dispute process referred to as Form 1s and MFRs. We continue to work with the U.S. government to resolve these issues and are engaged in efforts to reach mutually acceptable resolution of these outstanding matters. However, for certain of these matters, we have filed claims with the ASBCA or the COFC. We also have matters related to ongoing litigation or investigations involving U.S. government contracts. We anticipate billing additional labor, vendor resolution and litigation costs as we resolve the open matters in the future.

Form 1s

The U.S. government has issued and has outstanding Form 1s questioning $80 million of billed costs as of December 31, 2019. They had previously paid us $52 million of the questioned costs related to our services on the LogCAP III contract. The remaining balance of $28 million as of December 31, 2019 is included on our consolidated balance sheets in “Claims and accounts receivable." In addition, we have withheld $26 million from our subcontractors at December 31, 2019 related to these questioned costs, which is included in "Other current liabilities" on our consolidated balance sheets.

While we continue to believe that the amounts we have invoiced the U.S. government are in compliance with our contract terms and that recovery is probable, we also continue to evaluate our ability to recover these amounts as new information becomes known. As is common in the industry, negotiating and resolving these matters is often an involved and lengthy process, which sometimes necessitates the filing of claims or other legal action as discussed above. Concurrent with our continued negotiations with the U.S. government, we await the rulings on the filed claims. We are unable to predict when the rulings will be issued or when the matters will be settled or resolved with the U.S. government.

As a result of the Form 1s, and claims discussed above as well as open audits, we have accrued a reserve for unallowable costs of $41 million at December 31, 2019 and 2018, and the balances are recorded in "Contract liabilities" and "Other liabilities" in the amounts of $26 million and $15 million, respectively.

Private Security Contractors. Starting in February 2007, we received a series of Form 1s from the DCAA informing us of the U.S. government's intent to deny reimbursement to us under the LogCAP III cost reimbursable contract for amounts related to the use of PSCs by KBR and a subcontractor in connection with its work for KBR providing dining facility services in Iraq between 2003 and 2006. The government challenged $57 million in billings of which the government had previously paid and withheld payments from us of $44 million. We had previously recorded the withheld payments in "Claims receivable" on our consolidated balance sheets.

After a series of favorable awards by the ASBCA and subsequent appeals by the U.S. Army, on July 9, 2019 the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld the prior ASBCA decision confirming the entire award in our favor including interest. We recorded additional revenue of $13 million representing the awarded interest not previously recognized on the withheld payments when the cash was received. This matter is now resolved.

Investigations, Qui Tams and Litigation

The following matters relate to ongoing litigation or federal investigations involving U.S. government contracts. Many of these matters involve allegations of violations of the FCA, which prohibits in general terms fraudulent billings to the U.S. government. Suits brought by private individuals are called "qui tams." We believe the costs of litigation and any damages that may be awarded in the FKTC matters described below are billable under the LogCAP III. All costs billed under LogCAP III are subject to audit by the DCAA for reasonableness.

First Kuwaiti Trading Company arbitration. In April 2008, FKTC, one of our LogCAP III subcontractors providing housing containers, filed arbitration with the American Arbitration Association for all its claims under various LogCAP III subcontracts. After complete hearings on all claims, the arbitration panel awarded FKTC $17 million plus interest for claims involving damages on lost or unreturned vehicles. In addition, we determined that we owe FKTC $32 million in connection with other subcontracts provided we are reimbursed for these same costs by the U.S. government. We previously paid FKTC $19 million and the remaining $30 million is recorded in "Other Current Liabilities" on our consolidated balance sheets. As of December 31, 2019, we believe our recorded accruals and the pay-when-paid terms in our contract with FKTC are adequate if we are unable to favorably resolve our claims and disputes against the U.S. government. See "KBR Contract Claim on FKTC containers" below.

Howard qui tam. In March 2011, Geoffrey Howard and Zella Hemphill filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois alleging that KBR mischarged the government $628 million for unnecessary materials and equipment. In October 2014, the DOJ declined to intervene and the case was partially unsealed. Depositions of DCMA and KBR personnel are expected to occur in early 2020. The court has set a deadline of July 19, 2020 as the cutoff for all fact discovery and depositions. We believe the allegations of fraud by the relators are without merit and, as of December 31, 2019, no amounts have been accrued.

DOJ False Claims Act complaint - Iraq Subcontractor. In January 2014, the DOJ filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois against KBR and two former KBR subcontractors, including FKTC, alleging that three former KBR employees were offered and accepted kickbacks from these subcontractors in exchange for favorable treatment in the award and performance of subcontracts to be awarded during the course of KBR's performance of the LogCAP III contract in Iraq. The complaint alleges that as a result of the kickbacks, KBR submitted invoices with inflated or unjustified subcontract prices, resulting in alleged violations of the FCA and the Anti-Kickback Act. The DOJ's investigation dates back to 2004. We self-reported most of the violations and tendered credits to the U.S. government as appropriate. On May 22, 2014, FKTC filed a motion to dismiss, which the U.S. government opposed. Following the submission of our answer in April 2014, the U.S. government was granted a Motion to Strike certain affirmative defenses in March 2015. We do not believe this limits KBR's ability to fully defend all allegations in this matter.

Discovery for this complaint is now complete. The Court has yet to rule on various motions filed in early 2019 that would affect the scope and venue of the case. The court will set hearing and trial dates after addressing the pending motions which we expect will occur in 2020. As of December 31, 2019, we have accrued our best estimate of probable loss related to an unfavorable settlement of this matter in "Other liabilities" on our consolidated balance sheets.

Other matters

KBR Contract Claim on FKTC containers. KBR previously filed a claim before the ASBCA to recover the costs paid to FKTC to settle its requests for equitable adjustment. The DCMA had disallowed the majority of those costs. Those contract claims were stayed in 2013 at the request of the DOJ so that they could pursue the FCA case referenced above. Those claims were reinstated in 2016. We tried our contract appeal in September 2017. In November 2018, we received an unfavorable ruling from the ASBCA disallowing all of our costs paid to FKTC. KBR's motion for reconsideration by a senior panel of judges at the ASBCA was denied. KBR filed its brief on appeal in September 2019. We expect oral arguments will take place in 2020. As of December 31, 2019, we believe our recorded accruals and the pay-when-paid terms in our contract with FKTC are adequate in the event we are unable to favorably resolve our claims and disputes against the government.