Public Accountability Report

Meet the Company
Building Your Wall

Parsons Government Services was awarded a $609,410,737 contract to manage border wall construction through Big Bend National Park. Here is their documented track record — all from public government sources.

Two fraud settlements. $4+ billion in failed Iraq contracts. Criminal convictions. Active securities investigations. This is who your tax dollars are going to.

$7M

In Fraud Settlements

False Claims Act (1995 & 2015)

$4B+

In Failed Iraq Contracts

Terminated, voided, or abandoned

5

Law Firms Investigating

Securities fraud (Feb 2025)

$609M

Your Tax Dollars

Awarded for the border wall

Who Is Parsons Government Services?

Not a small-town contractor. A Fortune 1000 defense conglomerate with $6.8 billion in annual revenue, 19,600+ employees, and a deep pipeline of former military officials in leadership — backed by nearly $1 million per year in lobbying expenditures.

Corporate Profile

Parent Company
Parsons Corporation (NYSE: PSN)
Founded
1944 (82 years ago)
Headquarters
Chantilly, Virginia
FY2024 Revenue
$6.8 billion (+24% YoY)
Employees
19,600+ worldwide
Federal Contracts
523 contracts, $17.7 billion total
2024 Lobbying
$950,000
2024 Campaign Contributions
$592,053

Revolving Door

Senior VP Earnie Robbins, who managed Parsons' international division during Iraq reconstruction, is a retired Major General who joined Parsons just four months after leaving military service. POGO noted that defense contractors "are full of retirees who have lots of access and exercise a lot of influence." [Source]

$17.7 Billion in Federal Contracts by Agency

$17.7B523 contracts
Dept. of Defense$10.6B 373 contracts
Dept. of Energy$2.5B 25 contracts
GSA$2.0B 61 contracts
Dept. of Transportation$1.7B 18 contracts
Other (12 agencies)$0.9B 46 contracts

30 Years of Documented Failures

Every incident below is documented in DOJ press releases, federal inspector general audits, SEC filings, or federal court records. Click any entry for details.

The Iraq Catastrophe

From 2003 to 2007, Parsons managed over $4 billion in Iraq reconstruction contracts. The results were catastrophic — mass terminations, abandoned projects, criminal convictions, and hundreds of millions in wasted taxpayer dollars.

Iraq Reconstruction: Where Did the Money Go?

$900Mcost-plus contract
Terminated or Canceled43%

$142M+ spent on projects that were never finished

Incomplete / Abandoned24%

Projects left as "empty shells of crumbling bricks"

Actually Completed33%

Only one-third of attempted projects were finished

150 Healthcare Clinics

$243 million contract

TERMINATED — Only 6 of 150 clinics completed

Federal auditors found most partially completed clinics were little more than "empty shells of crumbling bricks and concrete." USACE progressively terminated the contract.

$186M spent (96% failure rate)

Khan Bani Saad Prison

$40 million contract

TERMINATED FOR DEFAULT

Parsons was paid $31 million for a prison that was never completed. The government left behind $1.2 million in unguarded construction supplies — most went missing.

$31M paid for unfinished work

20 Hospital Refurbishments

$70 million contract

CONTRACT VOIDED

Corps Commander Maj. Gen. McCoy: "In the time they completed 45 projects, I completed 500 projects." He found cost overruns "in almost every case."

Losses undisclosed

Munitions Clearance Program

$60 million contract

CRIMINAL KICKBACK CONVICTIONS

Two Parsons employees sentenced to federal prison (15 and 27 months) for taking over $1 million in kickbacks. A subcontractor paid 13% of contract value as bribes to steer awards.

$23M+ in tainted subcontracts

Follow the Money

Parsons has a documented pattern of billing the government for costs to which it was not entitled. Twice caught, twice settled.

1995

Air Force Overbilling

$3.2 Million

Parsons paid the United States $3.2 million to settle fraud claims arising from allegations that the company knowingly overbilled the government on two Air Force contracts.

Source: Federal records via Wikipedia

2015

DOE Savannah River Fraud

$3.8 Million

PGS settled allegations that it knowingly mischarged the DOE for ineligible employee relocation costs on a $2.3 billion nuclear waste facility.

"Those who expect to do business with the government must do so fairly and honestly."

— Deputy AAG Benjamin C. Mizer, DOJ
Source: U.S. Department of Justice

February 2025 — Active Investigations

Securities Fraud Under Investigation

-11.5%

Stock price drop

$29M

In financial adjustments

5 Firms

Investigating fraud

Two days after DHS announced the $609M border wall contract, Parsons disclosed $29 million in financial adjustments. Their stock plummeted. Within 24 hours, five securities law firms announced investigations into whether Parsons and/or its officers made misleading statements about financial performance.

Glancy Prongay & MurrayKirby McInerneyFrank R. CruzHoward G. SmithPomerantz LLP

The Savannah River Meltdown

PGS's "flagship" $2.3 billion DOE nuclear waste facility — the same project they settled fraud on, got cited for "degrading performance," and faced $33 million in penalties.

Original ScheduleDec 2018 target
Actual CompletionOct 2020 — 2 years late
False Claims Settlement$3.8M paid to DOJ
Threatened Disincentive FeesUp to $33M
DOE cited "degrading performance" ... schedule was "unstable and unreliable" ... expressed "lack of confidence" in Parsons' ability to forecast milestones and costs.
— DOE Notice of Concern, March 2018 | Source

Why This Matters for Big Bend

The parallels between Parsons' past failures and the border wall contract are impossible to ignore.

Same Cost-Plus Structure

Parsons' Iraq contracts were predominantly cost-plus — the structure SIGIR and POGO identified as enabling waste. The border wall program management contract warrants the same scrutiny.

28 Laws Waived = Zero Oversight

DHS waived the Endangered Species Act, NEPA, Clean Water Act, and 25 other laws. The regulatory checks that would normally catch compliance failures have been eliminated.

History of Contested Costs

From Air Force overbilling (1995) to DOE false claims (2015), Parsons has a 20-year pattern of billing the government for costs they're not entitled to. A $609M contract offers ample opportunity.

Inadequate Oversight Capacity

SIGIR repeatedly cited failure of the Army Corps to adequately oversee Parsons in Iraq. Whether DHS can do better across 175 miles of the most remote terrain on the border remains an open question.

"The question is not whether Parsons can win government contracts — it clearly can. The question is whether its documented track record should have disqualified it from managing one through Big Bend National Park."