Westinghouse Expenses Questioned

Westinghouse Electric Corp. employees “routinely” filed false expense vouchers on government defense contracts to raise cash for picnics, Christmas parties and baseball uniforms, the Justice Department said.

The government made the accusations in papers filed last month in U.S. District Court as part of its efforts on behalf of the Defense Department to acquire Westinghouse’s internal audit reports.

The government cited testimony from a Maryland trial of a clerk accused of embezzling $65,000.

The government said the clerk was acquitted, even though she admitted altering invoices for $65,000 of office supplies, because her supervisors “knew (of) and tacitly approved her conduct.”

Several employees testified that supervisors asked them to raise money by claiming reimbursement for fictitious travel. The cash was then turned over to a supervisor and the expense was billed to either a Defense Department or commercial contract, they said.

“The testimony . . . demonstrates that false petty cash vouchers for local travel were routinely used . . . to generate a slush fund to pay” for company events, the government alleged.