WASHINGTON (AP) — The Washington area’s Metro transit authority has paid $4.2 million to settle a lawsuit that accused it of awarding a no-bid technology contract.

The U.S. Attorney’s office announced the settlement on Wednesday.

A former Metro employee filed the lawsuit under the False Claims Act. Metro was accused of awarding a $14 million contract using federal grant money to Virginia-based Metaformers, Inc., without competitive bidding.

The whistleblower, Shahiq Khwaja, will receive a nearly $1 million share of the settlement. Khwaja also received $390,000 to settle an unrelated wrongful-termination claim against Metro.

U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen says the settlement shows that agencies will be held accountable if they don’t honor the integrity of the contracting process.

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