The university was already excused as a defendant, but then last week, a judge again ruled against Valcik on the remaining portion of his lawsuit, saying he didn\u2019t prove an important part of his claim.<\/p>\n
Valcik claimed his discovery of an embarrassing mistake led to his firing as Tech\u2019s \u201cManaging Director for the Office of Institutional Research.\u201d<\/p>\n
He believed staffing reports contained errors needing to be reported to state and federal officials \u2013 but were not reported. The errors, according to Valcik\u2019s lawsuit, would cause Tech to get more federal money than it deserved.<\/p>\n
Valcik also claimed he deserved protection under the federal False Claims Act. United States District Judge James Wesley Hendrix disagreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cValcik\u2019s sole remaining claim alleges that Texas Tech\u2019s Chief Financial Officer Noel Sloan and Chief Data Officer Brandon Hennington violated the False Claims Act (FCA) by terminating Valcik\u2019s employment in retaliation for his protected whistleblower reports.\u201d<\/p>\n
But he failed to prove one very important detail in lawsuit, Hendrix ruled.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe reported the incorrect data itself, but did not report any concern that the \u2026 data was being used to defraud the government,\u201d Hendrix wrote in his ruling.<\/p>\n
Valcik claimed fraud in his lawsuit but Hendrix wanted evidence. By Valcik\u2019s own account, he corrected the data, according to the ruling.<\/p>\n
\u201cThus, the court concludes that Valcik\u2019s internal complaints about this false data do not \u2018concern false or fraudulent claims for payment submitted to the government,\u2019\u201d the ruling said.<\/p>\n
An FCA retaliation claim needed to show:<\/p>\n
Valcik was \u201cengaged in protected activity\u201d<\/p>\n
His bosses knew he was engaged in protected activity and<\/p>\n
He was fired \u201cbecause of\u201d the protected activity.<\/p>\n
Hendrix ruling said Valcik\u2019s allegations were \u201ctaken as true\u201d for the purpose of his ruling. But they were not officially found to be true or false.<\/p>\n
The court docket as of Tuesday did not show an appeal. The deadline is 30 days (April 16).<\/p>\n
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