This occurred long before the False Claims Act had been amended, so a qui tam lawsuit was not an option for Wityczak. He told a Senate subcommittee in 1985 that the company was charging the work and materials used in projects that the Pentagon pays a fixed-price for to those where it gets paid for costs plus a profit, thus boosting its revenues. This is an edited version of his story, as told to the subcommittee when Congress was deciding whether to amend the False Claims Act to make it more effective.

In 1973, I was hired in Rockwell’s products support group, space transportation system, in Downey, California. My job involved processing materials orders, updating the status of books, checking corrections of materials orders and expediting orders from outside vendors.

In early 1974, I started noticing mischarging of work during the Apollo-Soyuz test program. This is a fixed-price contract, and I saw that work being charged on time cards to cost-plus programs. I also began to notice certain items being ordered for personal use that were billed to cost-plus contracts, including excessive amounts of 24-karat gold polymide tape, exotic woods, wall paper and carpeting. I talked to my group leader about this, but nothing was done.

I was assigned to the products support function of production control and received an excellent employee performance review. Yet I was still facing a tremendous conflict inside between my loyalty to the company and my loyalty to my country.

In 1976, I was assigned to the purchased labor section of products support and promoted a year later. It was during this time that I continually saw mischarging of tools and fabricated parts used on other projects to the space shuttle.

I reported this to the head of purchased labor. I was told by him to just do as I was told. In addition, I and the other 25 to 35 employees in my office were ordered by our supervisors to bill to the space shuttle time we had actually spent working on other projects.

I did file false time cards for a while, because I was feeling pressured to keep my job and go along with peer pressure. Yet it really began to bother my conscience.

I told my supervisors in late 1977 that I would no longer mischarge my time cards. They reacted angrily, calling me "anti-management," "anti-Rockwell," and a "pain in the ass." Supervisors often had me sign blank time cards, which they filled in later, often incorrectly.

Gradually, I was squeezed out of the work I was doing. I was stripped of my confidential security, my access to documents was limited, I was excluded from meetings and was put to work doing menial tasks outside my job description, such as sweeping, making coffee and cleaning a 50-gallon coffee pot. The tasks were often difficult physically, and my back condition was aggravated, and I had to take a medical leave.

I tried to go through proper internal channels but absolutely got no results. For example, I turned over some documents indicating mischarging and theft to a supervisor and another company official. They promised to pass on the material to Rockwell security and the FBI. However, I never heard from the FBI, and a year later I discovered that the documents were in fact turned over to the people doing the mischarging.

Other outside complaints had no impact on my situation either. I met with someone from NASA’s inspector general’s office and gave him some documents. I was told the grand jury would probably call me to testify. I never was called.

From that time on, I began to continually get harassed on the job. My supervisors made me work in a tool control area where I had to engage in heavy physical labor, which was quite taxing on my health. I had to pick up and inventory numerous heavy items, including tooling parts and compressed wood from blocks. I had to try to balance them on my wheelchair, and sometimes the pieces would fall and hit me.

The harassment didn’t stop there. I was assigned to the machine shop where I had to unload and store all the parts that came to the shop. To reach shelves ranging from four to 12 feet high, I had to stand up in my wheelchair on my stumps, and sometimes I would fall and hurt myself.

I complained to a company equal employment opportunity official, and nothing happened. My supervisors probably assumed that I would quit if they made things tough enough for me.

In May 1982, Rockwell informed me that my job was no longer available and that my fate was in upper management’s hands. In other words, I was fired.

I have always been a patriotic man. Yet I feel in this situation, my country was letting me, my co-workers and taxpayers down.

We need the bill introduced by Senators Grassley, DeConcini and Levin to amend the False Claims Act. If the amended act had been on the books, I could have filed a case on behalf of the government to recover the fraudulently obtained money for the Treasury. I would have been assured of some action and job protection. Once I filed the suit, I could not have been fired, harassed, demoted, threatened or suspended from my job without the company paying some penalty.

Moreover, I would have been sure that the Justice Department would look into the facts and evidence I presented and could make an informal decision whether to enter the case. The court would make sure that the case would be tried on its merits, and I would receive a financial benefit for my efforts from the proceeds of the settlement, if successful. Of course, the Treasury and taxpayers would benefit the most from the money received back into the Treasury.

The (amended law) is needed to encourage employees like myself who know first-hand of fraudulent misconduct to step forward. Without this bill, these employees, the people in the best position to give such information, will be forced to remain silent at the peril of risking their jobs, being blackballed from the industry and finding no means of supporting a family or making a living.

Editor’s note: All of the protections and guarantees Wityczak sought were included in the amended False Claims Act that other whistleblowers now benefit from.