**Contracting Officer's Representative (COR)**

**Refresher Training**

A Telecast Originating from the BLM National Training Center

December 3, 1998

(Day 2 of 2 days)

This transcript is from the closed-captioning file produced during the
telecast.

It may contain errors and omissions in transcription.

Announcer: the Bureau of Land Management Satellite Network Presents Live
from the BLM National Training Center in Phoenix, Arizona, \"New
Rules‑new Tools, Contracting Officer\'s Representative Refresher
Training, an Update of Acquisition Regulations and Procedures to Improve
Contract Performance.\" And Now, the Host of Your Program, Peggy Dabb.

Dabb: Good Morning. Welcome to Day Two Every Our Refresher Training for
Contracting Officer\'s Representatives or CORs. Joining Us Again Today
Is Julie Lewis, the Procurement Analyst From the Idaho State Office.
Good Morning, Julie.

Lewis: Good Morning, Peggy. I\'m Glad to Be Back Again and Hello to
Everybody out There. We\'re Glad You\'re Here, Too.

Dabb: Also Back for the Second Record Is

Williams: from the Northwest Procurement Institute. Hi, Again, Dave.

Williams: Thanks, Peggy. Somebody Picked up on the Idea That I Closed
off Yesterday Talking about We Had Some Fun or This Whole Thing Could Be
Fun, And So by My Definition of Fun, We\'re Going to Have Some More of
It Today When We Start Talking About Those Specific Responsibilities
That Fall to a COR. So We\'re Going to Start Rolling Them Pretty Soon.

Dabb: Thank You, Dave. We Are Glad You\'re All Back. Today We\'re Going
to Be Addressing Issues of Special Interest to You, The, as You
Administer Contracts. For All of You Back Here for Day Two of Our
Training Course, Please Remember to Once Again Sign Today\'s Roster and
Send it To the National Training Center. If You Haven\'t Sent in
Yesterday\'s Roster, Please Do So Now. Well, Dave, Let\'s Start by Going
Over the Field Responses to Yesterday Afternoon\'s Exercises.

Williams: I Would like to Take Each Question Separately. We Had Three.
The First Question Was What Type Of Projects Do You Have Coming Up Where
You Might Be Able to Use These New Tools? I Tried to Summarize and Put
on The Elmo Some of the Kinds of Things That You\'ve Identified, And So
I\'ll Give You a Chance, If You Will, to Kind of Focus on Some of the
Projects That We\'re Going to Be Talking about Just As an Example of
Things That Are Happening. One of the Ones Is We Have Things like
Cultural Inventories, Range Projects, Fire Rehab, Fences and Wildlife
Guzzlers, Some Folks Who Are Going to Be Involved in Id/iq Contracts and
They Don\'t Consider Bpas Anymore. I Might Point out There Is Still A
Role for Bpas. The Comment Yesterday about People Getting Rid of Bpas
Was Not an Attempt to Say Don\'t Have Bpas Any Longer. It\'s Just That
It\'s One of Those Things That May Fit in Your Mix. If it Fits in the
Mix, Then You Retain That. Some of the Other Items, Things That People
Indicated They Might Be Getting Into, We Have Some Herbicide Spraying
Application, We Have Building and Fabrication Of Some Remote ‑‑ at
Remote Locations, a Comment I Highlighted Here Here, Eis, and Then the
Question Dealt with Is Eis a Commercial Item. We Maybe Can Mention That
Eis, Depending on Where You Are, Could Likely Be a Commercial Item.
Again, You Determine That by Doing Market Research. You Go out and Find
out What\'s Available. Certainly Other People in the World, Other State
Governments, A Lot of Private Developers, People Are Required to Do
Environmental Impact Statements, Maybe the Question I Would Begin To Ask
Is Do You Want to Separate Data Gathering from Choice of Alternatives
and Certainly the Preferred Alternative, Which I Think Is a Governmental
Function, a Management Function. So it May Be That under Some
Circumstances That Would Be an Option. A Lot of Possibilities. You Just
Have to Pursue Them. Looking a Little Further, We Have Some Folks That
Might Be Looking at Maybe Using Commercial Item to Acquire a Two‑bedroom
Cabin, a Security System. Certainly Those Can Be Commercial Items. They
Can Use Performance‑based Statements of Work for Weed Surveys and
Garbage Collection. So a Number of Things There. Then Skip to Go Some I
Had on The Second Chart, There\'s a Group That\'s Watching the Broadcast
out of Denver That Are Part of a Park Service Organization That\'s in
the Process of Being Phased Out, and Things They Have Done in House They
Are Going to Be Doing by Contract. Going a Little Bit Further, There Was
a Question about Performance‑based Awards and Does That Somehow Create
Some Bias Against Those Small Disadvantaged Businesses? I Guess the
Point I Would Make, Maybe at this Point Npi Doesn\'t Meet the Definition
of a Small Disadvantaged Business Firm. But Where I Grew up in a Small
Town, I Am Sensitive to the Needs of Small Business. You Need Small
Business Firms. You Should Not Move Towards Id/iq Contracts That Harm
Your Overall System. So You Have to Do Some Weight And Balance. What Do
We Want to Do That Fits Our Local Economy? What Do We Want to Do That
Fits Our National Economy? Just Because Some Things Work in One Location
Doesn\'t Mean That They Work Everywhere. So, Again, Analyze, Look at the
New Tool, Determine Whether or Not it Fits and If it Does, Then Make Use
of It. If it Doesn\'t, Consider Something Else. Then There Was Another
Group That Was Talking about Maybe How Do We Contract for the Marking Of
Leave Trees. Going to Be Timber Sales and We Are Going to Dispose of
Some Timber but We Want to Retain Certain Numbers of Trees. That\'s
Another Activity. And Then We Had One down at the Bottom That I\'ll
Mention That Bpas Still Have a Place in this Mix and Also Wanted to
Point out That Ordering under Things like Gsa or Federal Supply
Schedules Or Id/iq Contract, Those Can Likely Be Done Without and I Said
a Warrant, You Have to Have Authorization to Order under Those Kinds of
Contracts but It\'s Not like You\'re Stepping Out into the Open Market
and Using Regular Procurement Authority. So I Wanted to Clarify a Couple
Of Those Things. That\'s at Least Some of the Things That Came In. Now
Let Me Switch over and We\'ll Talk about Some of the Concerns About How
We\'re Going to Deal With These New Tasks, New Challenges, New Projects.
So That Was the Second Question, Concerns on How to Proceed. One of the
First Ones I Identified, You Can See There, Is in Terms of Our Concern
Is How We Proceed in a Manner That Doesn\'t Cause Negative Tea in The
Community, Being Located in Small Communities. They Care about What\'s
Going on And You Have to Be Careful. Certainly, Again, Agree with That.
You Need Small People in Your Small Communities. If You Get Rid of All
Those Local Vendors, Who Is Going to Be Around When You Have Emergencies
and Other Things. You Still Have to Pick the Right Mix. Looking a Little
Further down That List, We Had Some Things Like How Does the Vendor Take
Into Consideration the Various Size of the Project? There Were a Number
of Questions That Kind of Related to the Id/iq Kinds of Contracts, What
Happens If They\'re Multi‑year. Typically If You Have Sing Cull‑year
Appropriation and You Have a Multi‑year Contract, Your Procurement Folks
Will Put in a Statement That Says Funding Is Contingent upon
Availability From Congress. So Those Second and Third Years Beyond the
First Year Are Not Firm. So We\'re Only Guaranteeing the First Year.
Some Folks Raise the Question About, Well, How about Minimum Guarantees?
What Happens If We Don\'t Get Funding? The Minimum Guarantee Only Has To
Be a Nominal Amount. You Know, So It\'s Maybe That One Task Order. So
It\'s Not like It\'s a Huge Amount of Money. I Would Suggest That If You
Have A Firm Commitment, a Minimum Requirement under Id/iq Type of
Contract and Management Is Short Of Dollars, Then Part of Their Choice
Is, Do We Pay and Get Nothing or Should We Do Some Budget Adjustment and
Maybe We Better Fund That One Task, That One Activity. So Management
Still Has a Role In this Process Also. So Those Are Some of the Concerns
That Came About. One of the Questions Dealt With, What Happens If an
Id/iq Contractor Goes Broke? The Answer, I Guess, Is the Same Thing That
Happens When Anybody Else Goes Broke, You Terminate The Contract, or You
Terminate The Order Against the Contract, You Find Someone Else, You
Exercise Rights and Responsibilities Contingent upon Whatever Was in
Your Contract. So Those Kinds of Things Can Happen. Going Back to the
Elmo, Let Me Show You Just a Couple Other Things That Showed up on Some
of The Last Ones, Wasn\'t Able to Get Those in in Type, So Choice Of
Herbicide. If this Was a Project to Do Noxious Weed, How about the
Choice of Herbicide? Can We Have the Contractor Do The Environmental
Assessment, The Ea? Or How Do We Ensure Proper Treatment Method? Part of
the Points I Would Make On the Id/iq and I\'ll Clarify That in a Minute
about Variation Contracts and We Typically Use The Term Id/iq, But, If
in Fact You Are Thinking about Using These Kinds of Contracts, There\'s
Nothing Wrong with Having the Contractor Submit a Proposal Which Says to
You, \"These Are the Kind of People I\'m Going to Utilize for the
Project, this Is the Training They Have, These Are the Skills They Have,
These Are the Methods We Will Be Using to Perform the Work,\" and So All
That\'s Done as A Part of Contractor Selection. You Don\'t Have to Write
the Specs or Just Say, \"Leave Us Some Leave Trees,\" and Then You Hope
for the Best. We Assure Ourselves Before We Award That the Contractor
Has a Clear Understanding and the Capability. But We Let Them Tell Us
How They\'re Going to Do it as Part Of the Proposal, Not after the
Award. So Getting Those Things in the Right Order Can Maybe Help to
Reduce Some of the Concerns There. Then Just Maybe Trying to Touch On
the Third Kinds of Issue That We Had, and That Question Was What Are
Your Roles and Responsibilities Related to Making Those Tools Work? We
Had a Number of Comments and I Tried to Pick Some of the Positive Kinds
of Things That People Need to Consider as They\'re Going Through These
New Processes. One of Them Is Think of New ‑‑ Think in New Ways. Be
Prepared to Try Something New. Another One, Combine the Needs Of More
than One Program. You Know, Sometimes the Requisitioner Is Only Thinking
About What Their Specific Needs Are and People in Acquisition Begin to
Think, Well, They Need These in the Range Program and Somebody Else
Needs These over In the Haz‑mat Program and Somebody Else Needs Them in
Another Program Activity. Maybe What We Ought to Do Is Combine All Those
Needs and Put Them into a Single Transaction And Make it Easier for
Everyone. So We Have to Start Thinking Differently. Moving on down the
Chart, We Find That Some Other Things I Identified That Could Be Useful
Is That Using Tools Will Bring Proficiency. You Know, Whenever We Start
Doing Something New, It\'s Difficult and So If We Get a Little Bit of
Practice, We\'ll Probably Make Some Mistakes, but That\'s All Right. At
Least We\'re Doing Something. So Let\'s Give it a Try and See If it Will
Work. Then I\'ll Switch to the Second Card on the Elmo So We Can Pick Up
a Few More of the Positive Thoughts That Came out of the Roles and
Responsibilities. This One, the Questions or the Comments or the Topical
Area Came from Utah, Salt Lake, Primarily, Where They Were Going To Be
Faced with Competition ‑‑ Or Lack of Competition and If You Stop and
Think That in Utah They\'re Getting Ready to Build All Kinds of
Facilities for the Olympics Coming On, You Know, Probably Any Contractor
or Most Every Contractor That\'s Reputable, High Quality, Guess What,
They\'re Busy Already. They\'re out There Making Money. So When Your
Project Comes Along, How Will You Even Entice Them to Do Your Job? So
Part of What You Have to Do In Acquisition Is to Consider The
Marketplace, and You Think About, You Know, How Do My Needs Compare with
Everyone Else\'s? That\'s Part of What You Have to Do When Thinking
about How Can You Work Together. Then One Last Comment I\'ll Just Kind
of Read to You That Would Try to Put it Somewhat in Perspective. Someone
Had Said If this Emphasis Is on Making These New Tools Work, Then Maybe
‑‑ and They Have to Be Done by the Co, These New Tools Are Used by the
Contracting Officer ‑‑ So Then Maybe Part of the Job of the COR Is to
Help the Co Understand and Use the New Tools. You Got to Remember Again
Working as a Team, Those of You That Are Requisitioners and CORs, You
Can\'t Necessarily Walk Into Contracting and Say, Julie, This Is the Way
I Want it Done. But What You Do Is Walk in and Talk About, These Are My
Needs. Are There Some Things We Can Start to Use? Can We Consider Some
New Things? Is it Possible to Use past Performance? Can We Use Some
Selection Evaluation Factors? So the Way in Which Your Team Functions
Can Help to Give You Better Results. I\'m Not Going to Walk out If I Was
Your Co and Tell You How to Do Your Range Management Job, And I Probably
I Would Hope You Don\'t Walk in and Tell Me How to Do My Acquisition
Job. But If the Two of Us Can Work Together, We Probably Can Get The Job
Done and We\'ll Both Maybe Have Some Fun? So That Gives Us a Little Bit
of A Summary, Peggy.

Dabb: Thanks, Dave. And Thanks, Everyone out There In Tv Land for All
Your Input. Please Keep it Coming. We Really, Really Appreciate It.
Today We Will Cover a Number of Important Topics. These Include
Authority and Delegation, COR Responsibilities, Prework and Other
Meetings, Documentation, Shutdown and Suspension of Work, Inspection and
Acceptance, Contract Modification, and Alternative Dispute Resolution.
So We\'ve Got a Lot to Cover. Let\'s Get after It. Julie?

Lewis: Well, a Contract Is a Legal Instrument That the Government Uses
to Acquire Goods And Services. Representatives for the Government must
Have Delegated Authority to Take Action on Behalf of the Government.
Likewise, an Agent for the Contractor must Have Authority To Take Action
on Behalf of the Contractor. So You as the COR Have Certain Authorities
Delegated to You Through the Contract. And Now Dave Will Further
Elaborate on Those Authorities.

Williams: Thanks, Julie. The Authority Starts with the Contracting
Officer, and as Part Of That Contracting Officer Definition That We Find
in the Federal Acquisition Regulations, It Indicates That It\'s the
Contracting Officer Includes the Authorized Representatives Acting
Within the Limits of Their Authority. And So Some of Those Key Words Are
\"Authorized Representative\" And \"Acting Within the Limits of Their
Authority.\" So Maybe We Have to Begin by Understanding a Little Bit
about What Is the Contracting Officer\'s Authority. As a Contracting
Officer They Have Received a Warrant, an Authority, They Can Make
Obligations on Behalf of the Government and They Really Have Four
Specific Items That Are Part of Their Authority. They Have the Authority
to Enter Into, Which Means They Can Sign Contracts on Behalf of the
Government. Secondly, They Administer Contracts. Thirdly, it Says That
They Can Terminate Contracts. And Then, Fourth, the Contracting Officers
Make Related Findings and Determinations. So It\'s Pretty Clear That as
a Contracting Officer, They Take That First Step, They Are the Ones That
Sign the Contract. But Also in the Fourth Step They Are the Ones That
Make That Determination, Should We Used Sealed Bidding? Should We Used
Simplified Acquisition? Is There an Existing Contract Somewhere We Could
Place an Order Under? So Those Are Determinations That Lead into the
Award. They Also Make the Decision in Terms Of, Is the Contractor
Responsible? Did They Respond to the Solicitation? Are They Eligible?
Those Kinds Every Things. Those of You That Serve as CORs Probably
Recognize Right Away The Second Responsibility of a Contracting Officer,
That Is to Administer ‑‑ If I Were in Front Of You in the Audience Where
I Could See You, I Would Say, Raised Your Hands, How Many of Those
Contracting Officers Are Out There Administering Your Contracts on a
Regular Basis? And Probably, You Know, Most Hands Would Still Be down
Taking Notes. Because Contracting Officers Delegate Most of That Job.
It\'s Not That It\'s Not Their Responsibility, It\'s Just They Delegate
That to Someone Else, You, a COR. So That\'s Where We Come Back to What
Is Your Authority? And Your Authorize Then Flows From the Contracting
Officer. The Contracting Officer Basically Put into the Contract What
the Authority Was of the Government and What the Responsibilities Were
of the Government, and That\'s Included In Terms of Rights and
Responsibilities in the Contract. A Second Point That We\'d Make in
Terms of Authority in Trying to Maybe Kind of Play on the Idea That, You
Know, this Whole Thing Is Simply Mathematics and with The Idea, Then,
That You as the COR, You Have the Authority 2 And You Have the
Responsibility 4. Maybe I Could Ask the Question, Does All this Stuff
Add Up? Does it Add up to Anything? But the Idea Is You Have the
Authority to Take a Lot of Action. You Have the Authority to Stop Work.
You Have the Authority to Reject Work That\'s Unacceptable. You Have the
Authority to Take All Kinds of Actions under the Contract. On the Other
Hand, You\'re Responsible for Doing Some Things like Providing
Government Furnished Property, If That\'s What\'s Required. You Are Also
Responsible for Making Sure That the Contractor\'s Invoices Are Date
Stamped in Timely and Sent on to The Contracting Officer or to The
Payment Center So That Payments Get Processed. And So as a COR You Have
a Lot Of Responsibility For, and You Also Have the Authority To. Now,
Kind of Playing on this Same Theme of Mathematics, Then Maybe If We
Think About, Well, What about These Tasks of Contract Administration,
Then I Would Suggest That There\'s Simply a Division of Task or Division
Duties, and this Is What the Contracting Officers Do. They Have a List
of Tasks and Responsibilities, and They Divide Those into the Contract
Team. So since You\'re Part of That Team, You Get to Have or Share Some
of Those Responsibilities Or Duties. Some of Those Things Could Well Be
the Authority to Say to the Contracting Officer, You Know, The Site Is
Ready. I Would like for the Contractor To Begin Work. They Would Issue
the Notice to Proceed. On the Other Hand, it Might Be That Your
Contracting Officer Has Given You the Authority to Issue the Notice to
Proceed. So All Those Things Come Back to What Authority Do You Have,
What Action Can You Take? Certainly as it Relates to Arranging Meetings,
like Prework Meetings, Conducting Them, Holding Them, Which We Will Talk
About in a Later Segment, You Have Much in the Way of Responsibility. So
Those Tasks Are Frequently Assigned to You, the COR. You Have the
Responsibility, Then, to Fulfill Those Obligations. You Might Think of
Your Contract In Some Respect As, Whatever the Thickness of Your Package
Is, Depends on How Much Fine Print Is Included, but If You Think About
Your Contract and You Went Through it One Kind of Line Item By Line
Item, and You Identified, First of All, Maybe All the Responsibilities
of Your Contractor, All the Things That They\'re Expected to Do, Then
You Might List Those or Highlight Those in Red. And You\'ve Gone Through
Your Whole Contract Now and You Have A Whole Bunch of Red Lines and Then
You Go Back Through Your Contract Again and You Look at It in Terms of
What Are Your Responsibilities to the Other Party, like Furnishing
Government Property or Making Timely Inspection. So What Are Your
Responsibilities? And Now You List Those or You Highlight Those, Maybe,
in Green. So Now We Have a Contract Package That Has a Whole Bunch Of
Green Marks in It. If We Did Our Cut and Paste and We Had Our Computers
Out, We Would Put Together the List of All Those Red Things and All
Those Green Items and What We Would Find out Is We Have a List Of Things
You Want to Make Sure Your Contractor Does, Because It\'s Their
Responsibility and Then You\'d Look at That Green List and You Would
Want to Make Sure You Fulfill the Obligations You Have on Behalf of the
Government. So If You Look at Contracts as Rights and Responsibilities,
You Have Rights and You Have Responsibilities. Likewise, Your Contractor
Has Rights and They Have Responsibilities. So the Idea of this
Delegation And What Can You Do, You Have Something That Comes to You in
Writing, and the Designation Typically, and it May Vary by Some
Contracting Officer, but Typically It\'s Going to Say What You Can Do,
or It\'s Going to Say What You\'re Prohibited from Doing. There Are
Really Two Ways in Which Delegations Can Be Made, And the Current
Delegation Form I See in the Bureau, it Says That You\'re Appointed,
Designated as COR and Then it Says Something like You Have Full,
F‑u‑l‑l, Full Responsibility for the Administration of this Contract And
Either in Caps or Underlined Or Highlighted it Says \"Except For,\" and
Then it Says \"These Are Things You Do Not Have the Authority to Do. You
Don\'t Have the Authority to Change the Contract. You Don\'t Have the
Authority to Extend Contract Time. You Can\'t Make Price Adjustments.
You Can\'t Sign off on the Assignment of Claims Letters, Assignment of
Claims Application.\" So There Are a Number of Things Listed
Specifically That You Do Not Have the Authority to Do. Most of Those
Things Relate to Either Time or Money or the Legal Obligations That
Exist Between the Two Parties. So Contracting Officers Frequently Will
Retain Those Actions for Themselves. I Would Also Suggest to You That
Just Because They Don\'t Give You The Authority to Take the Action, That
Does Not Mean That You Don\'t Have a Large Role in Doing Staff Work,
Recommendations, Gathering Data And Doing All Those Kinds of Things That
Are Necessary for Your Co to Make the Decision. So There Are Two Ways of
Delegating. One Is to Say You Have Full Responsibility Except for and
Then the Second Way Is to Say That You Are Responsible For. That\'s the
Kind of Delegation I Frequently See When We\'re Talking about
Inspectors. Inspectors Are Responsible for Keeping Daily Records and
Documentation on the Job. They Are Responsible for Inspect The Work of
the Contractor. And So Inspectors, We Tend to Say, \"These Are the
Responsibilities You Have.\" For CORs, We Say \"You Have Everything
Except.\" Thinking of Responsibilities, Remember Your Contractor Also
Has a Representative Throughout And You Want to Know What Authority They
Have, Because You Need to Be Able to Deal with Someone from the Other
Side That Has the Authority to Take Actions. One of the Things That
Creates Some Conflict with the CORs That ‑‑ Is That They Find Themselves
Having Two Bosses. They Have a Program Official, The One That Makes
Their Daily Work Assignments. They Probably Sign off Their Time and
Attendance Sheet. They Authorize Them to Travel. They Give Them Their
Evaluation Periodically During the Course Of the Year. They Grant the
Bonuses and All Those Things That Are Important. And Then They Have a
Contracting Officer That They Are Working For on a Specific Project. So
If There Are Conflicts Which Arise, Maybe the Boss Says, I Want You to
Leave Tomorrow Morning, You\'ve Got a Fire Assignment in Nevada, That
May Be Well. The Boss Has the Right to Assign You. But Before You Leave,
You Might Want to Pick up the Phone and Call Your Contracting Officer
And Say, Look, this Is What I\'m About to Do. I\'ve Packed My Bags. I\'m
on My Way. Maybe Your Co Will Say, Thanks For the Notice, I Will Get
Someone Else to Pick up Your Jobs While You\'re Gone. Or the Co Might
Say, You Know, There Is No One Else and There Are Some Folks That Can Go
on Fire Duty and What Is the Name And Phone Number of Your Boss? I Think
I\'ll Have a Little Discussion with Him. So as a COR You Don\'t Want to
Get in the Middle and Create the Problems, but Certainly You Need To
Keep Both of Your Bosses Informed about What\'s Going O So You Have Two
Bosses and Somehow You Have to Sort Through and Decide Which of Those
Taskmasters You Are Going to Satisfy Today. In the Long Run, You
Probably Have to Satisfy Them Both. Then as a COR You Are Going to Find
out You Have Technical and Administrative Responsibilities. So Maybe You
Are Pretty Comfortable with the Technical Kinds of Things You Do and You
Work on Those on a Pretty Regular Basis and You Feel Much Better. But
There Are a Whole Bunch of Administrative Things You Have To Do, Too,
like Process Payments and Maybe Interview Employees on a Periodic Basis,
And Make Sure There Are Supporting Documents and Daily Diaries and All
Kinds Every Administrative Responsibilities. So Your Job May Be
Typically Technical but You Have Some Administrative Responsibilities.
So That Gives You a Little Bit Of an Idea about Authorities and
Responsibilities, the Importance Of a COR, and So, Julie, I\'ll Let You
Take it Back Over.

Lewis: Ok. We Have \"Think Points\" Again Today. Here Is Our First
\"Think Point.\" An Important Point to Keep in Mind Regarding
Authorities Is, Does Your COR Designation Letter Adequately Describe
Your Authorities and Responsibilities? Do You Always Receive a Written
Delegation? If You Don\'t Receive a Written Delegation, You Don\'t Have
Legal Authority to Act on Behalf of The Contracting Officer. What Do You
Do If the Contractor Asks You for Something That You Don\'t Have
Authority to Approve? Obviously, You\'re the Technical Expert in this
Area, but Bring The Co on Board as Soon as Possible and Work it out as a
Team. The next Area We Will Cover Is Prework and Other Meetings. A
Variety of Meetings May Be Held with a Contractor Following Award. Prior
to Performance or to Resolve Problems with the Contract. Meetings May Be
for the Purpose Of Coordination, Problem Resolution, or Other Purposes.
Dave, How about Some Further Discussion on That?

Williams: Well, You Know, Based on What Somebody Said Yesterday about
Teamwork and All We Do Is Go to Meetings, and Now All of a Sudden We\'re
Talking About Meetings Again, So Maybe What We Have to Do Is Sort
Through How Can We Make Meetings Productive and How Can We Make Meetings
Efficient and There Could Be a Whole Course of Meetings Management,
Right? But Somehow There Are Some Important Meetings, Not to Say That
Other Things Aren\'t, but One of the Most Important Meetings That I Kind
of Wanted To Focus on Today Is That Prework Meeting, That Initial
Meeting That You\'re Going to Have with a Contractor, the Opportunity
That You Have to Talk about Important Things That Are on Your Agenda,
Whatever Is On Your Agenda. I Guess If You Kind of Read Between the
Lines, I\'m Suggesting That You Really Should Develop an Agenda Before
You Have a Prework Meeting. You Maybe Want to Talk about Quality,
Especially If You\'ve Had Some Difficulties in Getting Quality by
Contractors Previously. Or If There\'s Some Real Serious Timing in Terms
of When Is the Vegetation Going to Be Ready for Spring, Then You Want to
Make Sure this Contractor Is Prepared To Meet Those Time Frames and
Schedules. So There Are a Whole Bunch of Thing I Would Think You Would
Want to Put on Your Agenda for Discussions at a Prework Meeting.
Likewise, the Other Party Probably Has Some Things They Want to Have on
Their Agenda. So Somewhere along the Line We\'re Going to Sit down with
Our Contractor and the Appropriate Kind of People and We\'re Going To
Develop an Agenda and Talk About What it Is That We Need to Accomplish
in Order to Begin Working Together, Hopefully in a Positive Way, with
Each Party Having Separate Interests, You Wanting a Successful Project
and The Contractor Want to Go Make a Little Bit of Money, or at Least
Lose less than Maybe They Think They\'re Going to Lose at That Point in
Time. But Somehow You Have an Agenda And I Think Your Contractor Has An
Agenda. Now, Maybe the Most Important Item on Your Agenda Is, \"When Are
You Going to Get Started?\" And Their Answer Is, \"I Don\'t Know, it
Kind of Depends on When I Finish this Job over Here I\'m Doing for Some
Other Organization.\" That Might Not Be the Kind of Answer You\'re
Looking For. So Maybe You Need to Have a Little Further Discussion,
Then, On When Are We Going to Start. By the Same Token, If You Ask The
Contractor, What\'s Important To You, They Might Want to Start Talking
about this Payments Process. You Know, the First Thing I Would like to
Do at the Prework Meet Something Provide with You My Invoice So You Can
Start Payment. Well, That Might Be a Little Premature. We like to See
Some Services Provided First. Somewhere along the Line, the Two of You
Really Need to Have The Two Parties, Not Just Two Individuals, but the
Two Parties Need to Think about What Is it That We Want to Talk about at
a Meeting and What Are Appropriate Topics to Discuss? When You Start
Doing Things like That, You Might Have a Goal in Mind, and Maybe That
Goal Could Be to Have a Clear and Mutual Understanding Between the Two
Parties, What Is Going to Be Accomplished, How Are We Going To Work
Together, What Kinds of Things Are Critical, and Then The Other Thing
You Want to Do As Part of That Meeting Is to Try to Identify or Resolve
the Potential Kinds of Problems. Sometimes Those Potential Problems Flow
from Things You\'ve Had Experience with in the Past. Maybe it Deals with
in Your Local Area the Fact the Contractors Come, in They Stay In Some
of the Local Motels and Restaurants and Then They Leave Town Without
Paying Their Bills. To the Extent That Happens, You Know, the Local
Merchants Who Made the Sales Directly Probably Still Blame You, the
Government. I Mean, it Was Your Contractor, You Know. But, on the Other
Hand, Maybe You Need to Tell Your Contractors, These Kinds of Things
Have Happened Before, and You Want to Be Sure That They Understand Their
Responsibilities to the Community, If That They Buy Goods or Services,
They Ought to Pay Their Doggone Bills. So There Are Some Things You
Might Want to Clarify and Have Mutual Understanding or to Prevent Some
Problems from Occurring. So You Develop Your Agenda from Those Major
Kinds of Items. The next Thing Maybe Comes into Play, and this One I\'ll
Probably Maybe Ad Lib to Kind of Say to Julie or Peggy, Where Are You
Going to Have the Meeting?

Lewis: You Know, Can You Have Those Meetings Just about Any. Where You
Can Have Them on the Job Site. I Think They Hold Meetings at The Pickup
Truck Sometimes. One of the Most Common Places When the Co Is Involved
Is That You Have it in the Office. There\'s Just Various Places Can You
Hold Them.

Dabb: We\'ve Hit Just Right Out on a Tree Stump. We\'ve Been and about
and All We Could Find to Put Our Papers on Was a Tree Stump. So Pretty
Much Anywhere.

Williams: I Think That Makes Good Sense. We Ought to Pick the Location
That\'s Appropriate for the Topic We\'re Talking About. It\'s Oftentimes
‑‑ I Guess Maybe Most Typical What I Find Is That The Meetings Are Held
in a Government Location. In One Sense, When You Pick Location, If You
Work on Those Power Trips, Then You Have a Little More Power When You
Meet On Your Turf. So They You Circle Around the Table, and I\'ll Kind
of Again Jokingly, Maybe Make the Point, Stretch Point for You That All
Six of You in the Government Circle Around the Table and Then You Have
the Contractor on the Other Side and Your Chairs Are a Little Higher
than Their Chairs And You Kind of Want to Tell Them Exactly How It\'s
Going to Be Done and That\'s Not the Purpose of a Contract Prework
Meeting. Maybe We Ought to Think about a Neutral Location. Maybe There
Is Another Location Where We Could Go. Maybe It\'s on Site. Maybe It\'s
a Combination. Maybe We Have an Administrative Meeting Where We Talk
about Administrative Kinds of Things In the Appropriate Environment And
Then Somewhere along the Line, Whether It\'s That Same Day Or Just
Before the Contractor Goes to Work, We Have a Meeting Onsite and We Talk
about Those Things That Are Important to Discuss Onsite. So Somehow We
Want to Talk about Important Things at Important Times and Getting the
Right People There. Now, Don\'t Take Me Wrong When I Say If There\'s
Five or Six Government Folks There at the Meeting, There\'s Maybe
Nothing Wrong with Having Five or Six Folks There. It Might Be a High
Priority Project, the Boss Is Interested And Concerned and Wants to Sit
In for a Little While and See How it Goes. It Could Well Be You\'re in
an Environmentally Sensitive Area And You Have Some Folks That Want to
Sit in and Express the Concerns of the Bureau and Others about the Care
and the Concern and Access and Damage or Destruction During Performance
Of Work. Or it Could Be That You Got Folks Involved in Fire Equipment
And They Need to Examine the Equipment or They Want to Sign It up in
Advance So it Can Be Used in Case There Are Emergencies. There\'s a Lot
of Legitimate Reasons for Having Other Folks There. But the Focus Ought
to Be There Are Two Parties to this Government and the Contractor. The
Two Parties Ought to Have Mean ‑‑ Meaningful Discussions. At the Prework
Meeting the Contractor Is Typically Maybe Positive, They\'re Convinced
They\'re Still Going to Make Money, They\'re Happy They Won The Project,
They\'re Maybe Not Going to Get Rich, but They\'re Not Going to Be out
on the Street Begging. Things Are Looking. ‑‑ Looking Good. At That
Point You Have Something They Want. That Something Is the Notice to
Proceed. Although They Have the Award, They Can\'t Begin Work until You
Give the Notice to Proceed. Once You Give the Notice to Proceed, Because
It\'s like Get Out of the Way. They\'re Going to Want to Go Somewhere.
As Long as You Have That Notice To Proceed,er in a Position Where You
Can Talk about Those Things That Are Important on Your Agenda. So Make
Sure You Cover the Things That Are Important to You And Then Allow the
Contractor an Opportunity to Talk about the Things That Are Important to
Them. So, Again, Don\'t Take Advantage Or Misuse That Authority You
Might Have, but Recognize Once The Prework Meet Something Over, You\'ve
Really Miss Add Golden Opportunity to Start Contract Administration
Correctly. Maybe the next Thing, Instead of Where the Meetings Are Held,
We\'ve Talked a Little Bit about Who Should Attend the Meetings, They
Ought to Have Some Legit Mitt Interest and Need and We Could Maybe Pick
up One Other Key Kind of Word and That\'s a Word like \"Documentation.\"
We Have Another Topic We\'ll Get Into Later on Documentation, but I
Would Suggest That Documentation Starts at the Prework Meeting. We Want
to Know Who\'s There, What Are the Irissues That Are Talked About, What
Were the Decisions That Were Made. So We Have a Record of All the
Important Kinds of Things That Were Discussed at That Prework Meeting.
So That Starts this Documentation, and as We Were Preparing for the
Broadcast and Talking, Some of the Others, Julie and Peggy and I, over
the Years, We Have Only Said There Is Only Three Important Things In
Contract Administration, and That\'s Documentation, Documentation, and
Documentation And Now You Are Finding There Is Three Other Things That
Is Important, and That\'s Communication, Communication, And
Communication, and So this Is Maybe the Class of Three. So There Are a
Lot of Threes We Will Probably Try to Impose Ow. With That, at Least it
Gives You Some Idea, Some Summary of the Prework Meeting, and as Julie
Indicated, There\'s All Kinds of Other Meetings That You Have During the
Course of a Contract. You Know, a Meeting Doesn\'t Have To Be the Formal
Meeting in ‑‑ You Know, in the Office or Somewhere Else. You Are You\'re
Meeting on the Roadway with the Contractor on The Way to and from the
Job Site, That\'s a Meeting. Meetings Ought to Be for a Purpose. They
Ought to Be Done Properly. And They Ought to Be Documented. So with
That, Maybe That\'s Kind Of a Summary of Some of the Things I Would
Suggest That Might Be Appropriate to a High‑quality Prework Conference.
So with That, Julie. Peggy.

Dabb: I Did Want to Add One Thing, Dave. When You Are Documenting the
Prework Meeting, What I Have Found out in My Role as a Contracting
Officer Is That There Are Many More Times Where We Have That
Documentation of That Meeting That Surfaces What Appears to Be a Real
Small Point Of Clarification Needed, and by Addressing That Immediately,
We\'re Able to Save a Whole Lot Of Time and Effort Later on down The
Road Because it Was Brought Up Very, Very Beginning. So I Just Wanted to
Bring That Up.

Lewis: Also, Peggy, One of The Other Things You Need to Make Sure You
Talk about at the Prework Is Where to Send Your Invoices and How to
Process Your Payments and We Talk More about Payments Later, but
Definitely Want to Address That at the Prework Meeting.

Williams: So Really the Prework Meeting Is, Again, One Of the Most
Important Opportunities You Have to Get Your Contract and Get Your Work
Activity Started Correctly. So Take Full Advantage of It. Do All Those
Things That We Suggested, and Those Things That Many of You Have a Lot
of Practical past Experience Doing. In Terms of One Other Maybe Main
Point to Think about at the Prework Meeting and Documentation, If
Something Is Not Absolutely Clear, as Peggy Indicated, and You Talk
about That in the Prework Meeting, and You, the Two Parties to the
Contract, Agree this Is What it Means, Then in That Case, You Don\'t
Want to Just Make a Note In Your File. You Want to Get it Written, You
Want Both Parties to Sign We Agree this Is What it Means and It\'s
Reasonable and There\'s No Contract in ‑‑ Change in Contract Price or
Time and this Represents the Clear Understanding of the Contract Between
the Two of Us, and Then You Make That a Formal Record, And Then That
Does Become Legally Binding. Because, Otherwise, If You Just Write it in
Your Notes and Then You Come Back and the Contractor Comes Back and
Says, I Thought Odd Good Point That Day, but That\'s Not What I Agreed
to and I Want a Few Thousand Dollars For What Happened. So Reach Those
Agreements and Get Them Documented. If You Don\'t Have the Authority To
Sign Off, Then Prepare the Paper Work, Get it to Your Co, But Protect
the Interests of the Government. That\'s Your First Responsibility.

Lewis: You\'re Talking about a Written Modification to the Contract.

Williams: and it Might Happen At the Prework Meeting. The First Mod
Happens at the Prework Meeting Because We Found Out We Weren\'t Real
Clear about Our Specifications. So\...

Dabb: Ok. Thanks. We\'ve Been Invited to a Prework Meeting Between the
National Business Center and a Government Contractor. The Project Is a
Lead Dust Abatement and It\'s in a Federal Building. The Project Is.
Let\'s Go Ahead and Listen In.

this Is Where the Meeting Is Going to Be, John.

Oh, Boy, It\'s as Cold as a Meat Locker in Here. I\'m Glad We Had Our
Meeting at Your Area.

I Know How the Heat in this Silly Build Something. They Can\'t Decide If
It\'s Going To Be Hot or Cold. If It\'s Hot Outside, It\'s Cold In Here.
Anyway, I Grabbed Rex\'s Sweater? What Do You Think of this New Sweater?
I Think it Looks Good. I Especially like the New Uniforms.

I Do, Too.

Kind of Fits Our Personality, Relaxed Yet Practical and I Especially
like the Idea of the Levi Jeans We\'re Going to Be Allow to Do Wear.

Exactly. I Was Pleased They Made this Change, Too. This Is Going to Help
Me Stay Together During this Meeting. Contractor Should Be Here Just Any
Time Now.

That\'s Right. I Hope He\'s on Time. I Have Another Meeting Mid‑morning
and I\'m Start to Go Feel like I\'m a Professional Meeting Attendee.

Understand. What\'s this One On?

Deferred Maintenance

Oh, Lord. Everybody Knows That\'s Just Been The Watch Word All Summer
Long. I Know the Frustration. I\'ve Got Another One to Go To, Too,
\'I.d.e.a.s. That\'s Another Big Deal That We\'re Fiddling Around with
All The Time. Did I Tell You What the Contractor\'s Wife Said?

No, What?

I Called Her Up, I Called Him To Make Sure We Could Make this Meeting,
and She Said, Well, She Said, You Know, We\'ll Go Ahead And Set it Up,
But, She Said, My Husband Does a Lot of Hunting, And My Family Just
Loves Goose, So He Hunts Almost Every Day of The Hunting Season. And She
Said, What He Does Is He Gets up Early, Early, Early in The Morning So
That He Can Be Situated in the Goose Blind When The Sun Rises and Then
When the Birds Fly Over, He Takes a Few Shots, Bags Whatever Game He Can
Get, and Then Picks up on His Business. But She Said, Every Once in a
While, the Geese Don\'t Fly Quite As Quickly. And So There He Sits in
the Blind, and as the Sun\'s Risin\' In the Sky the Blind Is Getting
Warmer and He\'s Been Known to Nod Off. But She Told Me to Not Worry
Because He\'s Never Very Late. Anyway, a Crazy, Crazy Guy. He must Be a
Character.

He Was Telling Some Pretty Tall Hunting Tales to the Guys At the Site
Tour

this Ought to Be a Real, Real Entertaining Contract. Oh, Here He Is Now.
Good Morning.

There Were Geese Everywhere.

Wonderful. Looks like Did You Ok.

Well, Got My Limit.

That\'s Great. Well, Jim ‑‑

I Brought Each One of You One.

Oh, My. Well, Thank You Very Much. I\'m Sorry, We\'re Not Going to Be
Able to Accept These, Though, Jim. Uncle Sam Doesn\'t Look Kindly Upon
Us Accepting Gifts. So Your Wife Told Me How Much Your Family Enjoys
Geese, So You Just Take Those Back Home and Enjoy Them. But Thanks a
Lot.

We Appreciate That Offer.

Really Do.

Oh, Yes, My Whole Family Enjoys Wild Game

I Bet They Do. I Bet They Do. Why Don\'t Have You a Seat Here

How Many Children Do You Have, Jim?

I Have Four Boys, One Girl, Wife\'s Nephew Is Staying with Us. They Eat
like a Pack of Starving Locusts.

Let\'s Get Started with this Meeting. First of All, I Would like to
Thank You Very Much for Coming. It\'s So Important for Us to Have These
Meetings and Review the Work Before Things Actually Get Started. We
Appreciate You Coming to the Work Site Such as it Is.

Excuse Me, Jim. I\'m Going to Be Taking Notes All During this Meeting,
and I Need A Little More Room. Do You Suppose We Could Put this Down to
the End of the Table

No Problem.

Thanks. First Thing We Need to Do Is All Sign In. This Is the
Government, We Do Everything in Triplicate. So, Jim, If You Wouldn\'t
Mind, Go Right Ahead There and Put Your John Hancock There. Man, the
Heat Came up in Here! I must Be Having Some Kind of a Power Surge! Whew!
Ok. Jim, I\'ll Be Using the Prework Conference Checklist as Our Agenda,
and I\'d like to Give You A Copy. I\'ve Got One Here for John. And
We\'ll Just Kind of Follow Along Here as the Agenda for This Meeting.
I\'ll Be Discussing the Contract Clauses, and John Here Will Be Covering
the Specifications. So, First Thing, the Government Players in this Job,
First of All, Is the Contracting Officer And Her Name Is Kathy Ess and
She Is Located in Denver. Her Telephone Number Is in the Contract, and
She Has Full Authority under this Contract. I\'ll Be Acting as the
Contracting Officer\'s Representative, and John Will Be The Project
Inspector. As I Said, Kathleen, Has All of The Full Authority under the
Contract, but John and I Both Have Been Delegated Special Authorities,
Which Are Outlined In Those Letters That We Sent Along with Your
Contract Documents. Now, the Government Needs to Know Who We Can Speak
to Representing Your Company on These Matters, and So Do You Plan to Be
on the Job Most of The Time or ‑‑

I Plan on Being on the Job Most of the Time. When I\'m Not There, Ralph
Will Be My Superintendent.

Ok. If You in the Middle of this Form Here in Paragraph B, this Is Your
Authorization to Your Representative and Also, Give Us The Limits of His
Authority, If You Would Be So Kind.

Ok. That Means Can He Only Do What I Authorize Him to on this Sheet?

Exactly. Exactly. And We Will Know What We Can Talk to Him about and
When We Have to Contact You.

Ok. Very Good.

Just Sign That on the Bottom And We\'ll Continue on Here.

All Right.

Super. Thanks. Now We\'re Going to Begin with The Labor Clauses. Your
Contract Includes the Service Contract Act, Which Requires You to Do
Certain Things. Your Employees must Be Paid at Least Twice a Month. Your
Employees Are ‑‑ You\'re Required to Pay Overtime for Any Work That Your
Employees Do in Excess of 40 Hours in Any Work Week.

but They Can Work 10‑hour Day Snooze They Can Work 10‑hour Days. We
Don\'t Have Any Problem. We Just like to Be Kept Informed Of That So
That We Make Sure You Have an Inspector out There on Your Job. John
Doesn\'t Work 10‑hour Days, But He and I Can Work That out Between the
Two of Us. John Will Be Conducting Interviews with Your Employees During
the Course of this Work. Next We\'ll Talk about the Wage Rates. If We
Can Both Turn to the Wage Decision in Your Contract, Maybe We Can Figure
out What Those Rates Should Be. This Should Help Us Both.

There They Are

You Have the Extra Ones. We Gave You an Extra Set. That Extra Set That
You\'re Looking at There Is the One That You Should Be Attaching to the
Posters That Were Part of Your Contract. Did You Get Posters?

I Got Posters. I Plan to Just Put Upping up the Piece of Plywood in the
Building And Posting Them There.

Great. That Will Be a Terrific Way to Do It. Those Posters Are Important
Because Anybody That Works for You Certainly Needs Access to Them, as
Well as Anybody That Might Be Searching out for Employment. Now We\'ll
Move onto the Item That\'s the Most Important to You, Partial Payments.

Money Talks in this Business. My Wife Loves When it Those Checks Come
In.

That\'s Why We Need to Be Sure That We Handle These Payments Exactly as
Outlined in the Prompt Payment Act. Late Payments Impact Your Cash Flow,
and Interest That\'s Paid As a Result of Late Payments Impacts My
Budget. So It\'s Important to Both of Us. Payments Will Be Handled in
Accordance with the Prompt Payment Act. In Other Words, the Government
Will Make Your Payments Within 30 Days after Receipt of a Properly
Executed Invoice. Sent into the Designated Office, And That Office Is
Outlined in Your Contract.

Normally I Just Give My Invoice to the P.i. and He Carries it Through
the System

That\'s a Problem Now, Jim, And They\'ve Changed the Rules, And It\'s
Become a Lot More ‑‑ They\'re Just ‑‑ They Want it to Go to That
Designated Office and So That I Am the Designated Office, My Address Is
Clearly Outlined in the Contract. So I Would like to You Change That Old
Habit, If You Don\'t Mind.

If it Will Get Me More Money, I\'ll ‑‑ I\'ll Change the Old Habit.
Remember, These Issues Should Be Covered During the Payments Discussion,
Frequency of Partial Payments, What Elements must Be Included to Be a
Proper Invoice, Where the Designated Billing Office Is Located, the
Funds Will Be Electronically Transferred, and Payments Will Be Made
Within 30 Days.

Now, John, Will You Go Ahead And Discuss Contract Specs?

Sure. Here\'s Some Notes. Jim, BLM Is Overseeing the Transfer of These
Facilities to The University. A Lead Assessment Has Been Done. I Have a
Copy over There of the Report for Your Use. As You Know, this Job
Includes Some Pretty Serious Health and Safety Concerns. Primarily,
Lead, Zinc and Tsp. So Protective Clothing Is Going To Be Mandatory

Protective Clothing Should Be No Problem. I Brought along What We
Planned On Using. Look at this Hat. I Mean, it Keeps the Rain Off, The
Water Off, it Will Drip down The Front. I\'ve Got Raincoats. Got a Great
Deal on These. Look at the Logo. Isn\'t That Nice?

Jim, I Appreciate Your Work In Getting These Materials Together for
Today, but I Don\'t Think this Is the Kind of Material We Have in Mind.
The Color, for Instance, this Is Made Not to Be Very Visible. We\'re
Thinking of Orange, Yellow, Fluorescent Neon. Also Some Heavy Duty. This
Is Rather Lightweight. A Spring Shower Might Be Suitable for a Jacket
like This, But Not the Kind of Chemicals That Your Men Will Be Dealing
With at the Site

Oh, I Don\'t Know, I Thought This Looked Pretty G it Will Keep the Rain
off

it Is a Nice Logo.

Well, the Specs ‑‑ (Every Project Has Unique Requirements and the
Specifications Should Be Covered In Detail. This, However, Does Not Mean
That You must Read the Specifications Word for Word to The Contractor.
All Parties Should Leave the Meeting with a Mutual Understanding of the
Work to Be Accomplished.)

Well, That Concludes Our Review of the Contract. Do You Have Any Further
Questions?

No, I Guess I\'ll Have to Get Different Rain Gear. I Was Certainly
Hoping this Would Work.

Well, I Think It\'s Going to Be Mandatory. Anyway, We\'ve Got a Few
Minutes. We\'d like to Take You Around the Job Site One More Time. I
Know You Came to the Tour, but We\'d like to Do Witness Plans in Hand.
So Give Us a Chance to Stretch Our Legs. I\'ll Give this Back to You,
John, and Let\'s Proceed.

All Righty.

What\'s Ralph\'s Last Name, Jim?

B‑a‑r‑t‑e‑l‑l‑s.

Thank You.

Well, Are We Ready to Roll? Looks Just like We Bid It. We Shouldn\'t
Have a Bit of Problems

Great. I\'ll Go Ahead and Issue the Notice to Proceed Here. We\'ll Get
That Effective Today. And Here\'s Your Copy.

All Righty.

and We Look Forward to a Successful Contract for All of Us.

We Certainly Hope So. (While a Prework Meeting Is Not Required by Any
Contract Provision, it Is Required by the BLM Manual and One Should Be
Conducted on Every Project. The Meeting Is an Opportunity to Establish
the Ground Rules of The Contract and Opens a Dialogue Between the
Contractor And the Government. This Sequence Showed Only a Few Of the
Topics to Be Discussed. The Prework Conference Checklist Outlines All of
the Topics That Should Be Covered. Accurate Notes of the Meeting Should
Be Kept, Including the Items Discussed and the Contractor\'s Comments.
These Notes Should Be Forwarded To the Contracting Officer and Become
Part of the Official Contract File.)

Dabb: Thank You So Much, Gwen Moore, Jim Kor and John Daley For Making
That Video for Us. That Might Not Necessarily How Your Meetings Go, but
the Important Thing Is That You Saw How the Meeting Was Run and You
Especially How the Team Interacted. I Noticed That the Contracting
Officer Wasn\'t There. I Know That There Are Many, Many Times Where
There Are Instances Where the Contracting Officer Simply Cannot Go.

Lewis: That\'s True, Peggy. When I Worked in Denver in the Contracting
Office, of Course, We Do the Contracts out of Denver and Sometimes Our
Jobs Are in Alaska, Arizona, and to Attend a Meeting for an Hour, Hour
and a Half, it Just Isn\'t Feasible. Although a Couple of Times I Did
Attend the Prework That Was Held In an Office on the Other End And I Was
on the Telephone. So Sometimes There\'s Ways You Can Make it Work If the
Co Needs To Be There. Then, Obviously, Most of the Contracts We Do in
the Field, The Cos Usually Always Attend.

Dabb: That\'s for Sure. I Always like Going to the Preworks. Then You
Get a Real Feel for Who You\'re Dealing with and Also for The ‑‑ Just
for the Joy of Getting out of the Office Once In a While to See How it
Works. Yes. Let\'s Keep Moving with the Hows And Whys of the
Documentation. Let\'s Will He Julie Go into That Part.

Williams: Let Me Add One Point, Though, Back To, You Know, Sometimes My
Sense of Humor I Might Have Said When the Contractor Brought All That
Marvelous Equipment, All That Marvelous Gear, Maybe You Say, That Looks
Pretty Good, but I Don\'t Know, Will it Be a Little Uncomfortable That,
That Hat. Sometimes Maybe Getting Point Across That, You Know, That\'s
Really Kind of Foolish Without Saying That\'s Kind of Foolish And
Somewhere, You Know, There\'s Those Kinds of Things to Do. The Other
Thing, Had That Been a Duck Maybe Instead of a Goose, I Might Have Said,
You Know, I Would Take a Quack at That, But, On the Other Hand, It\'s
Still Got Feathers. But, Anyway. Enough of That Nonsense, Right? Ok.

Dabb: Julie, We Received a Fax Right Now I Would like to Take Before We
Get into Documentation. The Question Came from ‑‑ Not Sure Where the
Office Is. But What the Question Is: Can The COR Require the Contractor
To Provide a Schedule of Work And a List of the Submittals? For
Instance, Before the Notice To Proceed Is Issued.

Williams: Let Me Maybe Touch On That. One of the Things That You Want To
Think about Is What Can You Require ‑‑ First Question Is, What\'s in
Your Contract? You Know, If Your Contract Says That They Are Required to
Furnish a Schedule, Then Hopefully When You Drafted That, You Made it
Real Clear. Do They Get the Schedule Before Work Starts? Do They Get the
Schedule at the Prework Meeting? There\'s a Real Good Case Involving the
Government Writ Called for a Schedule and the Contractor Didn\'t Furnish
One. So the Government Said You Can\'t Start Work and They Shut down The
Project. But When You Read the Contract, What it Says, If You Don\'t
Submit the Schedule, You Don\'t Get Paid. See, You Have to Know What
Your Contract Says. So You Can\'t Stop Work, You Can\'t Require a
Schedule Unless Your Contract Provides for One. So If ‑‑ Nothing Wrong
with Writing Those Kinds of Things. Be Clear. When Do You Want It? You
Want a Schedule? Say When You Want it Furnished By. And You Say What the
Actions Are If the Schedule Is Not Furnished. We Do All Those Things up
Front, And Then the COR Is in a Good Position at the Prework Meeting To
Simply Say, \"This Is What\'s Required by the Contract.\"

Dabb: Thanks, Dave. Julie, Why Don\'t You Go Ahead And Go into
Documentation.

Lewis: Ok. Documentation Is Essential in The Entire Contracting Process.
Even Events Prior to Contract Award May Be Critical after Performance Is
Initiated. Such as During the Site Tour or Prebid Conference.
Documenting Questions and Answers and Filing Those in the Contract File
May Help Resolve Future Problems. And, Dave, You Have Some Additional
Points on Documentation Would You like to Make.

Williams:, I Started out with Those First Three Words, Documentation,
Documentation, Documentation and Lo and Behold, Here We Are. So They
Really Are Some of the Key Responsibilities and One of Those First Ones
for CORs, and Actually That Works for Everybody Involved in Contract
Administration, You Know, It\'s Not Just the COR Kind of Pointing the
Finger at the COR, But We Would Say That Inspectors, Project Inspectors
Also Document. Let\'s Also Point That Finger Back or Upward to the
Contracting Officer. They Are Likewise Required to Document. With a We
Are Talking about in Documentation, Is Whoever Takes Action, this Should
Be Documented. So Documentation, When We Talk About That, It\'s in a
Broader Sense. It\'s Not Pointing the Finger at The COR. So
Documentation Is Really an Essential Part of the Entire Contracting
Process. What it Really Is an Attempt to Do Is to Record Events and
Conversations and Actions, You Know, the Who, What, Why, Where, When,
All of Those Kinds of Things Are What We Want Covered. There\'s Two Key
Points Maybe That I Would Suggest That You Keep in Mind When You\'re
Thinking about Documentation, And the First of Those Is That
Documentation Really Needs to Be Timely. Second, Documentation Needs to
Be Factual. Ok? So Those Become the Two Key Words I Would Add to
Documentation. By Timely, What I Really Mean Is Don\'t Wait until the
End of the Week to Fill out the Week\'s Worth of Diaries. Maybe You
Don\'t Even Wait until The End of the Day to Finish Filling out the
Diary. Maybe You\'re the Kind of Person That as You Walk Around Project
Site and You Note Things and You Do Whatever Your Jobs Are, You\'re
Making Notes and Beginning to Fill out the Diary As You Go Throughout
the Course Of the Day. Somewhere If You Don\'t Do Your Diary or
Documentation Timely, I Would Suggest That You Will Forget about Some
Key Kinds of Things That Occurred During the Day. So Timely
Documentation Is Really Maybe the First Point. The Second One in Terms
of Factual Documentation, You Know, Sometimes I\'ve Seen Some Cases
Where, You Know, the COR Is out There in Kind of a Lonely Location and
Nobody to Talk to And So They Start Writing Interesting Things in
Diaries Because They Kind of Want to See If Anybody Reads It. Maybe
They\'re Sending Some of Those Messages to the Co, You Know, to See If
Anybody Reads The Diary, and Also When We Start Doing Some of Those
Kinds Of Things, Maybe We Begin to Characterize the Quality of the
Contractor\'s Work or Maybe Even The Kind of ‑‑ the Contractor, Or Maybe
We Start Making Judgments about the Contractor\'s Employees and the
Quality of Employees, And, You Know, Their Ability to Perform Work. If,
in Fact, We Did Some Checking and We Had Inspections And We Have
Documentation in Terms of What Was the Quality of Work, and We Have a
Record That We Rejected it and Maybe Had to Send a Notice of
Noncompliance, And Then If We Also Had Some Documentation and a Daily
Record That Shows How Much Production Did the Crew Do Today and the Next
Day, We Don\'t Have to Sit Back and Say ‑‑ or Put in Writing, this Is
Kind of a Lousy Contractor. The Facts Will Speak for Themselves When
Somebody Looks At Them and They See What\'s Happening in Terms of the
Crew And Production and Quality. So True to Keep Your Documentation
Factual and Keep It Timely. If You Can Do Those Two Things, It\'s Going
to Help You If You Run into Problems Later on and Get Called as a
Witness or Somebody Says, You Know, \"Tell Me about This,\" and They
Won\'t Begin Attacking Your Judgment. They Will Begin Having to Deal
With the Facts. So That\'s One of the ‑‑ Two of The Key Point Things. In
Terms of Documentation, We\'ve Said That When You Provide this Written
Factual Record, Whatever\'s There in Terms of the Documentation You
Have, and Whether That\'s on the Specific Document That May Be Provided
to You, Whether It\'s a Diary or Whether or Not It\'s in Your Notebook,
I Know Some Folks like To Use the Field‑type Notebooks, The Main Thing
Is That You Document. Kind of a Second Point I Would Want to Make for
You Is That When You Document Communications And Other Kinds of Things,
Having Been Involved in Some Litigation Where You Get Interrogatories
and Questions That Come from Either the Government Side or the
Contractor Side, They Ask Questions Like, for Any Meetings Tell Me Where
Was the Meeting Held, Who Was in Attendance, What Was the Time When the
Meeting Began, What Were the Topics Discussed, What Was the Decisions
Reached, and So If Those Are the Kinds of Questions You\'re Going to Be
Asked Later On, it Might Be Wise for You to Have Included That Kind of
Information up Front. So Meetings with Contractors, Meetings with
Representatives, Discussions with Communications With, All of Those
Things Are Really Important Parts of this Whole Contract Documentation.
So Communications, Whether They Be Oral or Whether They\'re Written
Letters, Are Documentation N Terms of Documentation, There\'s Maybe Some
Rules That Folks Have Suggested You Might Try and Follow and There Are
Really Four Elements. One Is That Your Documentation Ought to Be Brief.
Ok, That Doesn\'t Mean, You Know, Don\'t Put it down or Make it in
Copious Notes, but it Should Be Short and it Ought to Be Concise. So
Concise May Be Somewhat Similar to Brief, but Yet Somewhat Different in
Terms of What Those Words Mean. So Brief, Concise, and Then Precise
Means Accurate, And, You Know, Even If You Did All of Those First Three,
You Briefly Documented Important Events, Your Documentation Was Concise
And it Was Technically Accurate And Very, Very Precise, but You Know
What? It\'s So Illegible it Can\'t Be Read. Maybe It\'s Not Going to
Serve Much of a Useful Purpose. In Fact, I Recall One Board of Contract
Appeals Decision Where The Inspector, the COR, Was on The Witness Stand,
and When They Had Reproduced the Documents, Part of the Left‑hand Edge
of The Diary Was Cut off and it Was Difficult for the Judge to Read, And
the Judge Looked at the Witness and the Government Attorney, and He
Said, I Ought To Hold You in Contempt of Court, I Ought to Rule in Favor
Of the Contractor at this Point. You Can\'t Even Present Information
That We in the Court Can Sit down and Look at and Understand. You Know,
Point Is, If It\'s Not Legible, It\'s Not Going to Serve Your Purpose.
So Document, but Also Make it Legible. So, Short, Accurate, Readable.
Maybe Those Are Some Important Things for to You Think About. Now, How
Do You Document or Where Do You Document? Folks ‑‑ Folks Have What We
Used To Typically Call the Daily Diary. You Might Look at My Tele‑lesson
Guide and as I Did for the Notes, Make a Great Big \"X\" Through the
Daily Part of That. So We\'re Probably Talking More About a Diary.
Whether You Make it Daily or Only Show up on the Job Once a Week, I
Don\'t Know How Frequently You\'ll Be There, but The Idea Is That You
Want to Document on Whatever the Schedule Is, and this Is Documentation
of Site Visits or Documentation of Office Visits And When You Look at
Your Diary Form, It\'s Kind of a Useful Document for You, and If You
Look at it More as a Checklist Or Guide. Don\'t Think of That Objective
as Just a Fill in the Blank. If it Says Weather and You Put In, Yes, We
Had Some, That\'s Probably Technically Accurate, But Not Useful. Maybe
If You Put in Weather, the Question Is What Is the Weather Today. Well,
You Know, Another Beautiful Sunny Day in Phoenix, Except this Morning it
Was a Nice Foggy Day in Phoenix. But We Want to Know What the Weather
Has to Do with the Work The Contractor Was Doing or the Work That the
Contractor Was Not Able to Do Because of Weather. So the Objective Is
Not to Fill In the Blank about Weather, but Talk about the Significance
of Weather as it Relates to the Project. I Mean, If You Have Things like
Temperature, You Know, and You Had a Specification Involving Painting,
and it Said You Can\'t Paint When the Temperature Is 40 Degrees or Less,
or the Temperature must Be 40 Degrees And Rising Before Painting Can
Take Place, it Might Be Appropriate for You Not Only to Put down the
Temperature, but it May Be Important for to You Put Down What Time of
Day Did the Minimum Temperature Occur and What Time of Day Did the
40‑degree Temperature Arrive, And, You Know ‑‑ Because That Could Make a
Difference. Yep, Had a Whole Day, but Only One Hour of Temperature
Allowed Me to Work. So What\'s the Relationship of Temperature with the
Performance Of Work? Same Thing Is True on Site Conditions. Same Thing
Is True of Most of Those Items on Your Diary Form. So Think about the
Significance Of the Diary Entry, Not Just Filling in the Blanks. Ok? So
That\'s Important for You. In Terms of the Diary, There\'s Some Things
That Can Help You in Terms of Automatic Documentation. The Diary Kind of
Serves as a Summary Document Because You May Have Issued the Notice to
Proceed and in and of Itself, That\'s Documentation. It Contains the
Information About the Contract and the Name Of the Contractor, You Know,
Probably Contract Number, but Some Key Information Is like When Does
Contract Time Begin? It\'s Signed by Someone with Authority from the
Government. Could Be the Contracting Officer. It Could Be You, Depending
on Who Can Issue the Notice to Proceed. And Then There\'s a Place for
the Contractor to Typically Acknowledge Receipt of That Document. So
Here Is a Piece of Documentation That Occurred, and You Didn\'t Have to
Write in a Diary. It Just Kind of Happens. You Fill out the Form. And
There Are a Couple of Other Forms like That That Happen That Are Also
Documentation, like the Payment Form, or the Suspension/resumption Form.
So Some of the Forms That You Have in Your System Provide You With Ways
of Documenting What\'s Going On. A Lot of Folks like to Use the Daily
Diary or Diary as Kind of A Summary Somewhere. The Diary Says \"I Issued
Suspend Work Order ‑‑\" Let Me Change That. \"I Issued Notice of
Noncompliance Number 487 Today.\" Somewhere That References over To the
Document That\'s Number 487. On the Other Hand, Hopefully Your Diary
Could Have Just Said, \"I Indicated to the Contractor That Work Was Not
Satisfactory Today, and They Said it Would Be Corrected by Tomorrow. I
Will Look Forward to Tomorrow\'s Inspection.\" So Put down Important
Information. Use the Tools That You Have. Use the Records That Are
Available. And Notice to Proceed, Suspend And Resume Work Order, Things
Like Your Notice of Noncompliance. Inspection Forces. Aum of Those Kinds
of Forms That Are Available for You to Use in Terms of Contract
Administration Are There for Your ‑‑ Making Your Job a Little Easier. So
There\'s a Lot of Things That You Can Do to Make That Job of
Documentation Maybe a Little Simpler. Think of it Maybe in Terms of Risk
Management. You Can\'t Document Everything, But Think about Those Things
That Are Likely to Come Back and Bite You. Those Kind of Things, Put
down Some Documents. So, with That, Back to Julie.

Dabb: I Have a Fax I Would Like to Interrupt You On. This Is from the ‑‑
from Phoenix Here. It Says: If the Vendor Has to Incur Travel Expenses
to Attend The Prework Meeting, Doesn\'t That Have to Be Included in the
Specifications and Costs?

Lewis: Good Question.

Williams: You Know, That Could Be a Good Question. If You Didn\'t
Require a Prework Meeting and the Contractor Was Not Willing to Go
Without Pay, I Might Simply Say, You Know, the Day You Show up on the
Job, We\'re Going to Have a Meeting, Right? I Think You Also Can
Exercise Some Rights Like, You Know, You Still Have That Suspension of
Work Clause. You Might Say, No Work Is Going To Take Place until We Sit
down And Discuss This. I Mean, the Other Thing, I Guess, If You Have a
Contractor That When You Talk to Him about A Prework Meeting, That\'s
the Kind of Response You Get, It\'s Wise That You Document That. But,
Secondly, It\'s More Important You Realize What You\'re Just about to Be
in Bed With, a Contractor Who Is Going To Give You Problems. If You
Can\'t Even Agree on Come To Go a Meeting Without Pay, Think of What\'s
Going to Happen. So Maybe I Pick up the Phone as The COR and I Say, Hey,
C, on I Remember Reading the Fine Print Of this Contract. Wasn\'t There
Something about Notice of Termination for Convenience? We Don\'t Even
Owe Anything If We Haven\'t Started Anything. So How Do We Get this
Contractor\'s Attention. Let\'s Work Together. If That\'s Their
Attitude, I Think I Would Try and Figure out A Way to Deal with it
Correctly, Appropriately, and Hopefully Positively.

Dabb: Typically in the BLM Language of Our Solicitation Packages and Our
Resulting Contract Awards, We Do Have Some Verbiage in There That Has to
Do With the Prework Meetings, or at Least the Progress Meetings, or
Something That Leads the Contractor to Know That There Is Going to Be an
Expectation of Having Some Meeting of the Minds So to Speak. I Have One
More Question, and it Has to Do with the Notice to He Proceed, and I\'m
Wondering, If We\'re Talking about Issuing a Notice to Proceed,
Typically That Has Always Been under the Construction Contract Arena.
But What about When We Have a Service Contract? Do We Go Ahead and Issue
Notice To Proceed for the Service Side As Well?

Williams: it Can Vary. Typically I Think a Project Kind Of Service,
You\'re Going to Say To Somebody, this Is When We Want You to Start
Janitorial Service, Here Is Notice to Proceed. It Could Well Be the
Purchase Order Indicates When the Work Starts O Supply, Probably the
Order Itself Says That\'s the Start. But Somehow We Want to Communicate
to the Other Party This Is When Contract Time Begins. And We\'ve Always
Had the Formal System in Construction, but More And More Project‑related
Service Contracts Have a Distinct Time For Starting the Notice to
Proceed. It Can Go Either Way.

Dabb: Thanks, Dave. Julie?

Lewis: If You Think about It, Documentation Begins with the Signing of
the Contract. Please Make Sure That You Use The Actual Contract,
However, And Not the Solicitation. There Really Is a Difference. When
Questions First Arise, Refer to the Contract. Generally Your Answers
Will Be There. Additional Items That Might Be Considered Documentation
Include Correspondence to and from the Contractor, Reports and Test
Results, and Payment Records. Now Here\'s Another \"Think Point\" To
Ponder. How Complete Is Your Documentation? If Someone Else Went out and
Examined the Project Using Your Documentation, Would They Understand
What Had Happened During Previous Performance? Would it Be a Documentary
or a Mystery? If a Problem Arises Between the Government and the
Contractor, Making Decisions Based on the Record Is Much More Sound than
Making Decisions Based on ‑‑ the Way I Remember it Is, Other than The
BLM Diary Form, Does Anyone Have a Special Format That You Use to
Streamline the Documentation Process? We\'d Really like to Share Any
Ideas That You May Have. So Fax Them In. Peggy, Back to You.

Dabb: Thanks, Julie. We Have a Phone Call Now. It\'s from the Oregon
State Office. It\'s from a Contracting Officer Named Steve Shapiro. Hi,
Steve.

Caller: Good Morning. How Are You?

Dabb: Thanks for Joining Us. Will You Share an Experience You\'ve Had
That Relates to the Documentation Topic That We\'re Discussing?

Caller: Sure. Be Glad To. A Recent Experience I Had That Really Pointed
out the Need for Good Contract Administration Practices, Including
Documentation, Which Needed to Be Formed in a Timely and Consistently ‑‑
in a Timely and Consistent Manner Involved a Small \$55,000 Construction
Project to Realign a Section of Roadway, Remove Some Subgrade And
Included Clearing and Grubbing, Excavating, Installing Culverts, a
Little Rock Crushing And Spreading Some ‑‑ and Some Hydromulching, and
as the Work Progressed, a Modification Was Needed to Address the Removal
of An Additional Small Culvert, the Drilling and Blasting and Hauling of
Extra Material to Achieve Better Slope Stabilization, and in Another
Area to Correct a Grade Error Caused by the Government. The COR Provide
Add Funding Dock Ment and Description of the Work But No Government
Estimate or Contractor Proposal, and Indicated That the Work Had Already
Been Performed. The COR Was Very Pleased with The Good Pricing That He
Received in the Field Verbally But as the Situation Arose at The Very
End of the Fiscal Year And it Was Clear That the Work Had Been Performed
and the Pricing Appeared to Be Mutually Acceptable and Reasonable Based
On Previously Competitively Obtained Prices, Issued a Unilateral
Modification in the Amount of \$11,000. Shortly Thereafter, a Letter
From the Contractor Arrived Stating That the Modification Did Not
Correctly Reflect Acceptable Unit Pricing for the Work and Requested an
Equitable Adjustment in the Value of the Modification for an Additional
\$10,000. So as I Got Involved in this and Further Conversation with the
COR, P.i. and Contractor, I Learned the Pricing for the Additional Work
Was Discussed in The Field but There Was No Documentation, No Written
Cost Proposal Was Requested from the Contractor or Received from Him And
it Appeared That a Meeting Of the Mind Didn\'t Occur Between The
Parties. Further More, While the Contract Diaries Were Sent in Late,
They Did Note the Issues Which Came About in the Field and the Work
Complexity and Really Strongly Supported the Contractor\'s Request for
More Money. Some Lessons That I Think the COR and P.i. Learned Here Is
That They Should Notify the Co In Advance When Changes in the Work Are
Required and Provide Written Documentation on That For the File,
Prepared an Independent Government Cost Estimate Prior to the Review of
The Contractor\'s Proposal and When Approved by the Co, Obtain Signed
and Dated Contractor Approvals in Writing. That\'s One of the Best ‑‑
Proposals in Writing. That\'s One of the Best Documentation Deals You
Can Have. Send Diaries to the C No. A Timely Manner. And Don\'t Wait
until the End of The Fiscal Year to Deal with Outstanding Issues. That
Was One Little Experience We Had up Here.

Dabb: Steve, the COR Pretty Much, When He Acted Outside His Authority by
Negotiating with The Contractor Somewhat?

Caller: Yeah, There Was a Very, Very Minimal Heads‑up to The Co There
Was about Something To Happen, but it Didn\'t Go into Any Detail at All.
So it Made That Point a Little Bit Questionable. But Certainly How He
Followed Through with it Was Pretty Much Inadequate Documentation.

Dabb: I\'m Sure He Won\'t Do it Again. Like You Said, He Learned a
Lesson.

Caller: You Bet.

Lewis: One of the Problems, Too, If Those Diaries Had Been Sent to the
Co Timely, the Co Usually Reads the Diaries, Maybe Not Word for Word,
but Enough to Know What\'s Going on with the Project and Whether
There\'s Problems and So the Co Would Have Been Alerted up Front, and So
That Symingtonly Submission Was an Important Part of the Plan Here, Too,
Wasn\'t It?

Caller: Absolutely. In Fact, You Know, I Think Most Of Us Do Read the
Daily Diaries Quite Thoroughly. That\'s Something That Would Have Stood
out and We Would Have Noticed.

Williams: Picking up on the Positive/negative Theme of Performance and
Rewards and Penalties, this Is Probably One Of Those Cases Where There
Was Enough Good Documentation That It Protected the Government\'s
Interest to a Settlement Of, Let\'s Say, Whatever it Was, 10,000 or
11,000. On the Same Token, on the Other Side There Was Enough
Documentation to Say That to COR, You Probably Ought to Sit Down and
Figure out How You Are Going to Pay this Contractor for The Work since
You\'re the One That Ordered It.

Caller: You\'re Very Right, Very Correct.

Williams: Works Both Ways.

Caller: Absolutely.

Dabb: Thank You So Much, Steve, for Sharing That Particular Experience.
We as Cos Don\'t like to Go Through Those Kind of Experiences, If at
All, Very Often.

Caller: When They\'re So Infrequent, You Know, We Can Share One
Occasionally.

Dabb: Thank You, Steve.

Caller: Thank You. Bye‑bye.

Dabb: as Steve\'s Example Just Illustrated, It\'s Important to Involve
the Contracting Officer And Keep Good Documentation Throughout the
Project. The Accuracy of Your Records Can Be Key If Problems Arise or
the Contractor Fails to Perform to Your Specifications. At this Point,
We\'re Going to Take a 10‑minute Break. Yea! When We Return, We\'ll
Address Your Calls and Faxes about Everything We\'ve Covered So Far. So
Call. We Really Want to Hear from You. See You Soon.

Dabb: Welcome Back. We Received Some Great Questions. Now, We\'re Going
to Give You Some Great Answers. Keep Your Questions and Faxes Coming. We
Love This. Here\'s One on Notice to Proceed. It\'s from New Mexico. Can
the Notice to Proceed Be Issued Indicating Work Will Start Sometime in
the Future, or Does the Notice Have to Be Issued the Day the Contractor
Starts Work?

Lewis: Well, Generally You\'re Supposed to Issue the Notice to Proceed
When You Actually Start Work. You\'re Not Supposed to ‑‑ Even Though Our
Forms Have Typically Had Some Date Lines on Them to Fill a Future Date
In, You\'re Not Supposed to Do That.

Williams: the Other Point That Sometime Maybe It\'s in Your Probably
Section G of Your Contract, it Might Say Something About, You Know,
Contract, Notice to Proceed. It Might Distinguish That the Contractor
Will Receive the Notice to Proceed and Then They Have like Ten Days to
Begin Work. Sometimes the Date of Notice to Proceed Is Different from
the Date of Work, and That Might Be Different than the Prework Meeting.
But They All Ought to Be Very Precise Dates. So Everybody Knows When
Time Starts.

Dabb: Here\'s a Question about Prework. It Says: Can You Tape, Either
Audio or Video, Meetings or Discussions? Is it Legal If Both Parties
Agree Prior to the Meetings?

Lewis: Where\'s the Solicitor? Is it Legal? Is it Legal?

Williams: One of Those Questions, Is it Legal? You Know, I Think in
Part, as You Indicate, If It\'s a Meeting Where We\'re All Sitting
Around The Table and I Say Was it Appropriate, or Would You Have a
Problem If I Chose to Record It, The Other Party Would Probably Say No,
but I Would Know Bit. I Have Been in Classes Sometimes And I See
Somebody over There Recording the Presentation, and I\'m Saying to
Myself, I Would Appreciate it If They Would Have Said Something to Me.
On the Other Hand, Is it Legal Or Illegal? You Know, That ‑‑ Notice, I
Think, Is a Requirement If It\'s Over the Telephone and Those Kind of
Things. To the Extent the Two Parties Can Agree, Most Everything Can Be
Done If We Agree.

Dabb: Ok. Let\'s See. This Is Pretty Much a Comment About Documentation.
It\'s from the Park Service Actually. In Response to Any Other Type of
Documentation We Often Communicate by Phone in Regards To Units
Completed by Contractor. Contractor Questions about Specs Or Boundaries,
et Cetera. So That\'s Part of the Communication, Part of It, Document
Your Phone Calms. We Do That All the Time.

Williams: If You Get in the Habit of Documenting in Those Telephone
Calls, Those Kinds of Things, it Could Well Be When You Come Back to
Your Office and You Have That Whole List of Telephone Calls and as You
Pick Up the First One and it Says That I Need to Call and Talk to Julie
Lewis about Such and So, When I Pick up the Phone While I\'m Dialing, I
Maybe Glance at My Time and See What Time it Is And Then after Julie
Picks up The Phone, I Say, You Were Calling Me About, and I Talk About
the Issue, and Then We Make Reference. So I\'m Documenting as I Go.
It\'s Not like I Finish All the Conversation and Then I Do a Separate
Job of Documenting. Documentation Is a Part of the Job. If You Do it at
the Same Time You\'re Doing the Job, Now When I Hang up the Phone after
the End Of the Conversation, Then I Pretty Well Have Done My
Documentation and Now I Close, What Time Did the Discussion Finish and
We Set it Aside. I Had a Good Example That Was Provided to Me at the
Break on Documentation, and Let Me Just Share it for a Couple Reasons as
We\'re Going to Go to the Elmo in A Couple Minutes and Look at an
Example, but this Is a Case of Documentation Where It\'s Very Detailed,
Which Is Beneficial, It Works and Doesn\'t Always Serve Every Purpose,
but it Works, and I\'ll Show You How This Was Documented and I Will Tell
You Two Good Reasons Why It\'s Valuable. On the Elmo, What I Have Is ‑‑
It\'s Going to Be a Little Difficult to Read Because it Was Typewritten
Material, but If You Would Get a Sense, What We Have Is a Document
Called a Schedule Of Administrative Record Documents.\" So this COR
Listed Every Dockment with an Ar Number. So He Has a Corresponding File
Of Ar Numbers, and this Is the Notice That Refers Back to That. Like If
You Could Read it To, The Second One Says a Fax from Gps Regarding John
Forester, 10/15. So this Is Kind of the Summary Sheet or the Master
Control, but Assigns Document by Document. A Second Part of That Same
Kind Of Documentation Comes down to a Point Where We Could Find Here
That I Received a Fed ex Submittal from Gps Is Morning Which Includes
Transmittal Letter, and it Makes Reference To the Ar‑45. A Blank Rack
Panel. Ar‑46. A Set of Systems Drawings, Ar‑47. So There\'s a
Cross‑referencing Between the Documentation and The Master Control Kind
of a Sheet. Now, the Two Real Valuable Lessons I Want to You Pick up
From This, Based on My Discussion with the Person That Was Doing the
Documentation, Is That in the First Point I\'ll Make to You Is That, If
You Document, If You Do Good Documentation, I\'d Be Willing to Say to
You, I\'ll Bet You Don\'t Need It. But I Can Say That Honestly Because
If You Have Good Documentation, You Won\'t Have Problems. Or If Problems
Come Up, You Simply Confront Your Contractor With Your Good
Documentation, And All of a Sudden the Problem Goes Away. So in this
Case the Individual When the Contractor Started Raising Questions, the
Government\'s Representative Had Detailed Documentation. The Government
Did Not Receive a Claim. But, Between the Contractor and Some Other Sub
or Supplier or Some Other Entity, There Was Legal Problems. They Ended
up in a Court Fight. The Government\'s Documents Were Obtained under
Freedom of Information Act and the Government\'s Documents Helped The
Other Two Parties Resolve Their Conflict. So Documentation Is Valuable
for You. But It\'s Also Valuable to Other Parties That Might Have
Something Going on with the Contractor. So That\'s Practical Real
Example Of Documentation. We Vary Depending upon the Quality but
Documentation Is Essential.

Dabb: Dave, You Mentioned on The Example You Used it Was All Typewritten
and It\'s All in an Orderly Way, Which Makes it to Be Legible, and You
Had Talked About That, Too. We Have a Comment Here ‑‑ Actually It\'s a
Question from Medford That Goes along with the Same Comment You Just
Made. Do You Think It\'s a Good Idea For Cos to Put Diary Notes on
Computer or Is this Just Addedding an Unnecessary Step to The Co\'s
Workload? I Wouldn\'t Mind Answering That One. I Think the Bottom Line
Is Answer Is Whatever Works. If It\'s Going to Add Additional Work
Don\'t Do It. If You Have Your Documentation In a Manner That You Can
Read That\'s Legible, That\'s Easy to Be Able to Make it to Be Flowing,
Then However it Works. A Lot of CORs Will Have Their Little Laptops Even
out in the Trucks with Them, and Absolutely Depend on the Laptops and
They Go Ahead and Flip out the Disk And Bring it into the Co, and The Co
Goes Ahead and Documents The Official File That Way. So I Think the
Bottom Line, the Answer to That One Is Whatever Works.

Williams: Let Me Touch on a Couple Things about Documentation in Terms
of Did, If You Think about Your Diary or Documentation, It\'s Nice to Be
Able to Give Somebody a Piece of Paper, like Here Is the Notice To
Proceed. But, on the Other Hand, Think About Your Documentation as Being
Something That Will Help You Recall. So There Are Things to Refresh Your
Memory, and If You Put it Down on Your Computer Disk and Then When It\'s
Loaded You Say, Oh, Yeah, I Remember That Incident, it Was a Foggy
Morning On the Way to Phoenix and this Occurred, and this Happened. So
Your Memories Are Recalled as A Result of Your Documentation. The Time
When Documentation May Be Maybe Kind of Speaks for Itself, When We
Relied on the Last Papers I Looked at as Being The Only Document, Maybe
They\'re\' Appropriate When That Person No Longer Exists and the
Documents Have to Tell Us Something about It. But If the COR, Is Still
Around, They Are Going to Look at That Summary, and Their Testimony Is
What Is the Actual Factual Documentation.

Dabb: I Have One More Here. If Your Contract ‑‑ this Is from Washington,
D.c., by the Way ‑‑

Williams: Watch Out!

Dabb: I Know. If Your Contract Is Performeddance ‑‑ Performance Based
with a Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan, Why Do You Need a Daily
Contract Diary of Events? Shouldn\'t You Follow What Is in The Q & a
Plan. Are Any of the New Tools You Mentioned Yesterday Applicable To
Contract Administration? Actually I Guess I Asked Two Questions, Didn\'t
I?

Williams: Want Me to Deal With One First or Go Ahead?

Lewis: I Lost the First Question, but on the Performance Based If
They\'re under a Quality Assurance Plan, There Won\'t Be a Daily Site
Visit So There Wouldn\'t Be a Daily Diary, and You Would Follow the
Quality Assurance Plan. And That Becomes Your Diary.

Williams: Also, If You Have The Contractor Responsible for Recording
Daily Events as a Part Of Their Plan of Operation, Quality Control on
the Part of The Contractor and They Furnish Those Records to You, You
Know, What You Are Moving Away from Is You Being out There Watching,
Observing, Documenting Everything That Happens. That Doesn\'t Mean You
Can\'t Require the Contractor to Make a Record of What Work Was
Accomplished, Who Was on the Project and Furnish That to You. So They Do
Quality Control, and You Do Quality Assurance. You\'ve ‑‑ You Monitor
Their Plan And Make Sure That They\'re Doing What They\'re Expected to
Do and You\'re Meeting Your Obligation. So I Think Performance‑based
Doesn\'t Take Away. It Just Shifts Some of That Work. Also Maybe it
Gives You a Contractor That\'s Doing a Little Better Quality Job. On the
Other One, New Tools in Contract Administration, Certainly to Use past
Performance Keys Right into Documentation and What You\'re Doing Today
Deals with How You Consider the Contractor in the Future. So There Are
Probably a Number Of New Tools Which I Kind of Have Forgotten about in
the Last Few Minutes, but There Are No Doubt Some That Fit. Thanks, Joe,
Thanks from Those Of You in the Beltway.

Dabb: That\'s All the Time We Have Right Now for Questions, But We\'ll
Get to Any Unanswered Ones a Little Bit Later. So Just Hang out with Us.
Let\'s Discuss Shutdowns and Suspensions of Work. What Do You Think,
Julie?

Lewis: Well, as You Listen During the next Segment, Consider this
\"Think Point.\" We\'ll Revisit Again at the End Of Dave\'s Segment.
What Are Some Factors You Might Consider Before Taking Action to Stop
the Contract Work under a Suspension of Work Clause? Sometimes During
the Performance Of a Contract it Becomes Necessary to Stop the Work of
The Contractor. A Stop Work Order Is Issued for The Convenience of the
Government and Is Generally an Inconvenience to the Contractor. The
Government May Find it Necessary to Stop Work in Order To Comply with a
Requirement That Was Overlooked. In Some Cases, Unknown Conditions May
Require the Government to Stop Work. The Stop Work Action May Expose The
Government to Costs Associated with the Delay.

Williams: So as We Start Thinking about this \"Think Point\" in Terms of
What Action Can You Take, You Know, First Things I Would Have You Think
About Is, Do You Have the Authority under Your Delegation To Issue a
Stop Work Order, or a Suspend Work Notice? First Question Is Always, Do
You Have the Authority? But the Extent You Do Have the Authority and the
\"Think Point\" Was, Well, Should I or What Might You Think of Before
That Happens, You Know, Certainly One Of the Points Maybe Is, Do I Get
To Stop Work for Free or Is this Work Stoppage Going to Cost Something?
So Realize That You Don\'t Get to Stop All Work for Free. On the Other
Hand, Your Government Shutdown or Suspension of Work Clause Gives You
Some Rights That Might Not Normally Be in the Local Marketplace, in the
Commercial World Where Contractors May Be Working a Great Deal of the
Time. So What You Have Is a Little Bit Different, and So You Need To,
Number One, Know That You Have The Right to Take an Action, But, Again,
Realize That You Have a Responsibility If, in Fact, You Take That
Action. So You Have the Right to Stop, But You May Have a Corresponding
Responsibility to Pay. So It\'s Important, Then, to Know, When Can I
Stop for Free And How Long Can I Stop for Free And How Long Can I Stop
Before It Starts Costing the Government? So Those Are Some Things You
Want to Think about When You Start Considering Should I Stop Work. The
Other Point That Was Kind of Made by Julie, Maybe Didn\'t Pick Up on it
Initially, You\'re Not Out There to Stop Work for the Convenience of the
Contractor. You\'re Talking about Stopping Work for the Inconvenience of
The Contractor. So the Question, Then, Is How Much of That Work Can You
Stop? What You Need to Kind of Focus On Is If You Looked at the Standard
F.a.r. Clause about Suspension Every Work Clause, it Would Indicate That
You Can Stop Either All or a Portion of the Work. So If You Have Work
Going on at Various Sites or Various Sites That Could Be Worked On, and
You Run into Some Kind of a Condition, Let\'s Assume It\'s Maybe Some
Archaeological Kinds Of Things That You Had Not Identified Previously,
and So You Somehow, Because You\'re Aware and Conscious and Concerned
about Those Kinds of Things, You Think It\'s Necessary For Me to Stop
Work. Well, in That Kind of a Case, It\'s Probably Likely You Can Stop
Work for a Period of Time And the Clause Would Say a Reasonable Period
of Time, and So Now We\'re Back to Trying to Figure out What\'s
Reasonable. But You Will Be Able to Stop Work for a Reasonable Period of
Time. You Probably Get on the Phone or Get on the Radio and Call
Somebody Desperately and Say, We Found Something We Didn\'t Expect. How
Quickly Can You Come out and Give Us an Opinion, Decision or Tell Us
What to Do? So You Have a Reasonable Period Of Time to Stop. On the
Other Hand, If You Had Failed to Deliver Those Fence Posts and They Were
Government Furnished Property and They Were Supposed to Be Delivered to
the Site and You Show up Throughout And They\'re Not Available, in That
Case You Think, Well, I Better Stop Work. I Would Suggest to You That
the Minute You Stop Work, You Are Going to Start Paying, Because When
You Have an Obligation to Perform, like Deliver Gfp and Then You Fail to
Perform, That Stopping Is an Unreasonable Stop Work Order. So You Have a
Right to Stop All Or a Portion, and You Can Also ‑‑ it Says You Can
Suspend, Delay or Interrupt. So There must Be a Difference, Then, in the
Words, Probably Comes from Some Case Law, but Suspend must Be Different
than Delay, Which must Be Different Than Interrupt. But in Any Case, You
Can, According to the Clause, Suspend, Delay or Interrupt All Or a
Portion of the Work for a Reasonable Time for the Convenience of the
Government. So for the Inconvenience of the Contractor. So That\'s the
Exercise of Your Right. The Extent, Then That Your Actions Are
Unreasonable, Then We Find out That You May Become Liable. In the Cause
Would it Say That You Could Become Liable, You, The Government, If the
Delay Is Unreasonable and the Delay Is Either Because the COR\'s Actions
Or the Government\'s Actions or It Could Be Their Failure to Act. So If
You as a COR Are out There And You Are Unnecessarily or You Are
Disrupting the Contractor\'s Work, in That Case That Might Be An
Unconscionable Delay and Would You Owe. On the Other Hand, If You Were
‑‑ Had a Reasonable Basis for Delaying, Then Maybe It\'s for Free. So in
Many Cases It\'s a Matter Of Judgment. Is it a Delay You Will Pay For?
Is it a Delay That Is Not Going To Be Paid For? Remember to Meet Your
Responsibilities. The Contractor, Though, Is Not Going to Be Entitled
for ‑‑ to An Adjustment If, in Fact, There Was What\'s Called Concurrent
Delays, Meaning Otherwise the Contractor Was Going to Be Delayed. So,
Again, Back to Documentation, the Facts Are Really Critical. You Know,
If I Looked at it Factually, I Might Say, Did the Contractor Decide to
Make Major Overhauls of Equipment Because I Had Just Stopped Work? Or Is
it Because I Stopped Work That They Chose to Take Advantage of the
Opportunity and Overhaul the Equipment? So Your Diaries and Your
Documentation Really Could Be Critical. If You Could Show Me That the
Equipment Had Been Broken down For a Few Hours Before it Became
Necessary for to You Issue the Stop Work Order, and That as a Result of
That Breakdown the Contractor Was Likely to Be, You Know, down for a Day
or Two, and Then You Happen to Issue a Suspend Work Order, That
Documentation May Well Save the Government ‑‑ Say the Government Is Not
Liable for Anything Because There Were Concurrent Delays. So Concurrent
Delays, Documentation Is Critical. So Suspension of Work Is One of Those
Kinds of Things That it Can Cost the Government Money. It, Likewise, Can
Work to Your Advantage. If, in Fact, You Stop the Contractor\'s Work, I
Would Suggest You Always Try to Let Them Know What the Impact Is Going
to Be. If You Need to Call That Archaeologist to Come out and Look,
Maybe What You Ought to Say Is, You Know, I Think this Is Going to Take
Us at Least a Week. In That Case the Contractor Is Not Going to Sit
There with People Ready to Go to Work and Incur Heavy Expenses. If You
Otherwise Don\'t Indicate How Long it Might Be, Some Guesstimate, Maybe
It\'s Only Reasonable for Them to Sit There And Be Ready to Perform and
Then When It\'s Unreasonable, They Send You the Bill. So It\'s
Important. It\'s Important, Then, for You to Think about the Impacts of
a Shutdown and How All of this Works.

Dabb: You Received a Fax That\'s Real Timely with What You Just Got Done
Talking B it Came From Utah. I Was Told Last Year at a Training That
CORs Should Not Issue Suspend and Resume Work Orders Because it Deals
with Time on the Contract. I Understand That the Only Time ‑‑ Let\'s See
‑‑ the Only Time Was for Safety Issues. Please Clarify. I Think There
May Be a BLM‑related Policy on This?

Lewis: Part of the Problem Is, in Fact, the Clauses Do Talk About Time,
and When We Issue Our COR Delegation Letters, Especially for
Construction, the Authority Says That They Have Full Authority Except
Matters Dealing with Time of the So, Therefore, Should They or They Not
Be Issuing Suspend Work Orders? Part of the Existing Problem Is We\'ve
Got Forms That Have Been Printed That Are Suspend Work Order Forms, and
the Line for The Government Signature Says, Contracting Officer\'s
Representative. So There\'s a Little Bit of an Ambiguity There. We\'re
Trying to ‑‑ You Need to Follow the Lead of Your Contracting Officer and
the Contract and Your Authority, and Even Though the Form Has a Place
For Your Signature, it Doesn\'t Necessarily Mean That the Form Takes
Precedence over the Contract. Although, Some of Our Contracts, Too,
Actually Delegate That Authority to the COR Right in The Contract, Some
of Our Tree Plantings Is One Example I\'ve Used Where We Give That COR
Authority. But Safety Is Also Always ‑‑ If There Is Something Going on
on The Contract, You Need to Stop Work Immediately If There\'s a Safety
Issue. No?

Williams: No. Let Me Wrap One a Few Things on The Topic, Because in
Addition To the Kinds of Things That Are In the Clause and as You
Indicate, There\'s the Warrant Issue, Is That Even If Somebody Has the
Authority to Issue the Stop Work Order, Most of the Time the Cos Will
Have Reserved For Themselves the Settlement of Costs Associated with a
Delay. So We Kind of Separate the Delay From the Costs or Time of the
Delay, Which Is the Point Julie Is Making. So Just Because You Have the
Right to Stop, What You May Not Know at That Point Is What\'s Going to
Be the Future Price, And That\'s the Reason Why You Quickly Pick up the
Phone, You Call the Co, and You Say, \"Look, This Is What I Just Did.\"
If the Co Says, \"Well, Cancel It,\" Then All of a Sudden That\'s
Probably Not an Unreasonable Delay. Your Order Has Been Remanded and
We\'re Back to Full Operation. On the Other Hand, the Co May Begin to
Say, \"I Ran into this Problem Before and I Expect That We\'re Going to
Hear from this Contractor Because They\'ve Complained about it
Previously, And So this Is What I Need You To Do.\" So It\'s Again
Calling on Members Of the Team to Start Working Together. Now, You Know,
the Other Point That Comes out of It, If You Read the Fine Print of the
Clause, If You Kind of Get Desperate, Playing on the ‑‑ and I Mean, it
Will Put to You Sleep At Night, Right? If You Get to Looking and
Worrying about That Inconvenience or Convenience of The Contractor, All
of a Sudden The Point That I Want to Make Is That it Says That You May
Have To Pay and Then it Says Excluding Profit. In That Case, What
You\'re Reimbursing a Contractor for Are Costs Associated with the
Delay. But They Don\'t Profit. This Is Where There Is Maybe a Little
Historical or Background Perspective. If, in Fact, the Government Had To
Stop the Project for its Inconvenience, Then the Contractor Should Not
Benefit, Should Not Profit, from the Government\'s Misfortunate. So this
Is One of the Few Clauses Where We Say, Excludes Profit. Most of the
Time If We Say an Adjustment, it Will Say Equitable Adjustment, Which
Means Not Only Time, Money, Profit Included. So Suspension of Work as a
Clause Is Certainly Useful. The Other Point Maybe That Comes Up Is
Sometimes They\'ll Say, Can I Stop Work? What If the Contractor Has a
Safety Violation? That\'s Not a Stop Work under Suspension of Work.
That\'s a Stop Work Order for Noncompliance with Safety. So Distinguish
Your Right to Stop Work for Other Reasons Versus Your Right to Stop Work
Under the Suspension of Work Clause. Every Clause Has Rights. Every
Clause Has Remedies. You Want to Pick the Least Expensive Remedy for the
Government. If I Were on the Other Side, I Would Say, Hey, Hit Me with
the Biggest One You Have, Because I\'ll Newt a Bigger Claim. So Remember
Who Pays Your Bill.

Dabb: Thanks, Dave. Go Ahead.

Williams: I Think That\'s Probably about All Anybody Could Stand on
Suspensions of Work. So Maybe We\'ll Just Send it Back To Peggy.

Dabb: Before We Continue, I Want to Remind You That If You Have Any
Questions or Comments During the Upcoming Instructional Segment, Please
Call or Fax Them in During That Segment and We\'ll Get to Them Right
Away. Don\'t Wait. Just Do It! And Keep Them Coming. We Love It. Julie?

Lewis: One of the Most Important Responsibilities of The COR in Contract
Administration Is Inspection of The Contract Work. The Co Will Use the
COR\'s Decisions on Inspection to Initiate Payment Requests and Make
Other Administrative Decisions. Dave, What Are Some of the Different
Kinds of Inspections The Government Might Perform?

Williams: Well, There\'s, You Know, a Variety. You Can Inspect in
Transit. You Can Inspect on the Project. There\'s Almost Numerous Kinds
of Examples of Inspection. The Point I Guess, in Part, Is That the
Government Has the Right to Inspect, but They Don\'t Owe a Duty to the
Contract to Inspect. So Remember, You Exercise the Rights of the
Government. But Not a Responsibility to the Contractor.

Lewis: Go Ahead. Let\'s Talk a Little Bit More About That.

Williams: So If We\'ll Jump Into the ‑‑ the Topic of Inspection, it Can
Be Different, And it Can Be Different Depending upon the Kind of
Contract You Have. For Those of You That Do Some Work in Terms of
Services and It\'s Very Descriptive Type of Service and We Would Talk
about The Design Specifications Yesterday, If You Are Talking About That
Kind of a Specification, Then All of a Sudden, You\'re Monitoring the
Contractor to See Whether or Not They\'re Following That Design. So the
Type of Specification Makes a Difference in Terms of What You\'re
Inspecting. By the Same Token, If it Were a Performance Task, You\'re
Inspecting to See Whether or Not The Performance Was Accomplished And
Did They Meet the End‑product Requirements as Compared To, I Don\'t Care
How You Get There, Does the End Result Meeting Requirements? So
Performance Is One Way and Design Is the Other. The Third Item That Was
on the Slide That Is New Again and I Need to Make a Correction from a
Reference Yesterday, Commercial Item Acquisition, If You Made Good Notes
and You Were Following Every Word of this Broadcast, Then You Probably
Would Want to Go Back and Correct That to Say That Commercial Items Are
Covered in F.a.r. Part 12. Regardless of What I Might Have Said,
They\'re Still in Part 12. So under Commercial Item Acquisition,
Inspection Is Different. The Reason Why this Is Different And Unique and
New Is That You\'re Going to Be Inspecting Kind of like the Rest of the
World Inspects. And Maybe the Best Example Is That Where as a Normal
Course, If You Were Having a Contract Involving Supply or Manufacturing
or Even a Lot of Your Service Kinds of Contracts, Your Clause Permits
You to Inspect at Any Time at Anyplace, And You Can Inspect the
Services, the Workmanship, the Processes as Things Happen. But in the
Commercial World, You Know, the World That We\'re Not So Used to
Working, in You Don\'t Have the Right Necessarily Just To Walk into the
Contractor\'s Plant and to Make an End‑process Inspection. You Inspect
the Goods or Services That Are Provided to You in the Commercial
Environment. So Inspection under Commercial Is Different. So You Again
Need to Know What Kind of Contract Are You Administration String and
What Kind of Contract Inspection Clause You Might V the Inspection
Clause Is Different For Services than Construction Which Is Different
than the Inspection Clause for Supply. Somewhere along the Line It\'s
Important That You Read Your Contract, Know What it Says and Decide
What\'s the Appropriate Kind of Inspection Based on the Language of the
Clause Which You Have. So this Whole Idea of Inspection And Acceptance
Is Pretty Much Based on Commercial Contract Law. A Lot of Those Kinds of
Things, As We\'re Begin to Go Buy under Part 12 and Then Government
Contract Law, Because There\'s a Series of Rules and Regulations That
Have Evolved over Time in Terms of What the Government Can Do and What
the Government Is Not Permitted to Do. So You Have a Right to Inspect
Under Commercial, Somewhat Similar, but a Lot of Case Law When it Comes
to Government Cases. When Work Is Done Correctly, Then the Government
Goes Ahead And Makes Acceptance and That Kind of Ties Back into a Point
That Was Made by the Payment Folks Yesterday. When Did You Receive? When
Did You Accept That Item So That We Know When to Start the Count of
Time? And When You Make Acceptance, The Government Is Normally Limited
in Any Rights That it Has after Acceptance, and the Three That Are Shown
on the Video Now for You Are Latent Defects, Fraud and Gross Mistakes
Amount to Go Fraud. So Those Are the Three Primary Exceptions to Final
Acceptance. Those Are Exceptions That Exist In the Construction, Service
and Supply Kind of Clauses, the Standard Clauses That the Government Has
Been Using for Years. So to Maybe Get a Little Bit Better Understanding
of What Is Meant by Latent Defect, Fraud, Gross Mistake Amounting to
Fraud, I\'ll Give You Some Examples a Latent Defect, Latent Means
Hidden. So That\'s a Defect That Existed At the Time That the Services
Were Provided, or the Goods Were Provided, but the Defect Was Not
Discovered Through a Reasonable Inspection. So There Was a Defect. You
Made a Reasonable Inspection. You Did Not Discover It. And You Found out
Later on That The Defect Existed. In That Kind of a Case the Government,
Probably Not You the COR, but Going Back Through the Contracting
Officer, the Government Then Has the Right to Go Back to the Contractor
and Allege That this Is a Latent Defect and it Is Their Responsibility
to Correct It. Responsible Contractors That Are Liable for That Should
Go Back And Take Corrective Action. So That\'s Kind Afmss Take. The
Second One, Fraud, That\'s That Deliberate Intent to Deceive, a
Deliberate Attempt to Mislead You. Providing a False Certification. I
Certify the Chemicals Met All Requirements and after the Fact You Found
out They Didn\'t Meet That at All. They Created Their Own Kind of
Home‑brew Mixture and it Didn\'t Work Well. Fraud Is an Attempt, a
Willful Attempt to Deceive N That Case Again the Government Has Rights,
Even after You Have Paid the Contractor to Come Back and Assess Damages.
And the Third One, Then, Is the Area of Gross Mistakes and this Is Not
an Attempt to Deceive. You Know, I Would Characterize That as like
That\'s Just Shear Stupidity. That\'s Dumb. I Mean, That\'s Gross
Negligence. That\'s Stupid. To the Extent You Can Prove Gross
Negligence, You Have Some Rights. I Guess I Also Kind of Kid You And
Say, When Did You Realize This Contractor Was Grossly Dumb, When They
Started or When They Finished? Anyway, Think about Those Three
Exceptions. The Last One Is the Exception That Deals with Warranties.
Many of You Include Warranties That Provide Protection for You In the
Contract Even after Completion. So Warranties Can Be a Right. So Let Me
Give You One Practical Example How Commercial Items Are Different. In
the Commercial World, Your Inspection Rights Are Different Because in
the Commercial World, Inspection Has a Different Sense. You Could Not
Look at Work During ‑‑ Being Manufactured. So My Own Personal Practical
Example, If I Was in the Government and Had Gone to the Store, Let\'s
Say We ‑‑ We Won\'t Publicize Who They Are, but the Computer Store Where
I Bought a New Printer and I Looked at That Printer and I Thought, Just
Exactly What I Need, It\'s What I Wanted, I Always Wanted One like And
That I Write the Government Purchase Order and Pay for and It Sometime
Later That Printer Is Not What I Wanted, They Really Kind of
Misrepresented It, it Doesn\'t Crank out Five Copies a Minute and They
Aren\'t So Good. I\'m Unhappy. At That Point, Only Warranty I Might Have
Is Service Bill Tea That You Bought under Normal Government Contract.
But as an Individual, Dave Williams, When I Bought That Under the
Commercial Practices, I Had a Number of Days Afterwards to Come Back in
and Say, Wait a Minute, I\'m Not Happy with this Product. You Told Me it
Would Crank out So Many Copies and it Doesn\'t. In Fact, When I Had Some
Problems with Technical Support, I Picked up the Phone and I Called Your
Magic Number and I\'ll Swear to You, Folks, They Were Reading the Same
Book I Was And Neither One of Us Could Understand It. So I\'m Not Happy
with the Quality of this Work. So ‑‑ or this Product. In That Case, I
Gave it Back to Them and They Had a Choice. They Could Refund My Money,
They Could Fix the Product So Would It Do What They Said Coit Do, or I
Could Consider Replacing it With Something Else. And So as an
Individual, I Have Rights in the Commercial Marketplace That\'s
Different Than the Government Had Previously. That\'s Why I Say It\'s
Important To Know What Kind of Contract You\'re Administering and
Exactly What Kind of Contract You Are Working Under, Standard Government
or Commercial. Now, the next Item That Seemed Like It\'s Almost
Brand‑new Again To Folks Working in the Government and That\'s this
Whole Idea of Contractor Self‑inspection. It Has Really Been Emphasized
And Emphasized in Many Respects Because You Don\'t Have the Workforce
That You Had Previously to Be out There Looking at the Work to See
Whether or Not the Contractor Is Completing on Time and Getting Out Your
Little Magnifying Glass And Inspecting the Work to See If It\'s Done
Correctly. So since You Don\'t Have That, What You\'ve Kind of Moved
Back To or Maybe Moved to Is Contractor Quality Control. I Would Suggest
to You That You Had That All the Time. The Difference Is You Have Grown
Accustomed to Doing Contractor Quality Control. Whenever Work Was Wrong,
They Let You Tell Them it Was Wrong, And Then They Complained to You
About the Fact That Work Was Wrong and You Found It. What Quality
Control Is, Is I Went to the Store and I Bought a Shirt and I Pick up
That Shirt And I Look in the Pocket and I See That Little Inspection Tag
And it Says Inspected by Number 6, That\'s Contractor Quality Control.
The Manufacturer of That Shirt Was Satisfied That it Met Their
Standards. What I Do Is Quality Assurance. I Look at That Shirt and I
See, Number One, Do They Have a System and I Found That Little
Inspection Card, So I Know They Have a Quality Control System, But Now I
Look at it in Terms of Quality, Does it Meet My Standards? Is it What I
Was Buying? Is it Worth the Price I\'m Paying? Does it Meet the Bargain
I Just Struck with the Vendor? So All of a Sudden We Have Contractor
Self‑inspection Which Seems to Be New, and the Point I Would Make to
Most People That Have Been out There Doing Work, Like Somebody Had a
Question About, Well, How How Are We Going to Determine If the
Contractor Identifies the Proper Leave Trees So We Have the Right Crown
and Density and Health and Vigor Things of That Nature? I Would Say, How
Have You Determined That in the Past? When You Did the Work in Your Own
Organization, How Do You Determine Quality Control? Sometimes the Answer
Is, Well, You Know, I Did It, and I Know It\'s Right. Well, Yeah, but
What Does the Boss Think? Who Looks at Quality Control? So Point Is, I
Think, to Understand the Contractors Are Responsible, Whoever Performs
The Work Is Responsible to Assure That the Work Is Done Correctly. And
If You Are Buying and Paying For Those Services, Then You Check Their
System, and You Do Independent Verification to Satisfy Yourself That the
Work Meets Your Contract Requirements. So, in Some Respects It\'s New to
You and It\'s Certainly New to Some of Your Contractors. So They Need to
Be Encouraged to Start Doing Quality Work. Call it ‑‑ Quality
Contractors Do Quality Control. Marginal Contractors Let Do You Their
Work and Then They like to Complain with the Results Aren\'t Acceptable,
and It\'s Their Problem. Give it Back to Them. Let Them Solve It. They
Produced the Work. They Put in the Bid. They\'re Responsible for Their
Actions. You Can\'t Lead Them by the Hand Any Longer. You Don\'t Have
Time to Do That. Now, the next Point That I\'d Make in Terms of Looking
Not Only at the Kind of Specification You Have or Is it A Commercial
Item Contract or Is It Service or Supply or Construction, but You Need
to Think about How Precise Is this Specification You Have? Is it Subject
to Strict Compliance, or Is it Just Close Enough, Substantial
Conformance? If We Went Back to Our, No Doubt, Fun Exercise with the
Paper Clip, I Think I Told You To Bend it to Approximately 90 Degrees.
Ok. So That Was Not a Precise Spec. That Was Approximate. I Didn\'t Give
You Tolerances, Plus or Minuses. So That Means You Had a Reasonable
Tolerance. Some of You Bent That Thing to 89 Degrees. And Some Bent it
to 60. It Didn\'t Matter, Because it Didn\'t Work Anyway, but That\'s
Ok. But It\'s How Precise Is the Specification? Does it Call for
Judgment? If it Says, \"The Carpet,\" What\'s Clean? That Means
Reasonable Clean. If You Want to Be Precise, You Say Not More than 10
Micromillimeters of Dust per Whatever Square of the Carpet. That\'s
Getting Ridiculous F It\'s Substantial Performance, If It\'s Reasonable,
Then You Look at What You\'re Doing. So What Does the Contract Call For?
What Are the Standards? Sit Specific? Is it Not Specific? So You Have
Some Judgment to Exercise. That\'s Why Your Contract Is Not All Black
and White. It\'s Simply Gray and a Lot of Gray. Before We Go to the Last
Question in Your Tele‑lesson Guide, Let Me See If Julie or Peggy Have
Something They Want To Add to Inspection.

Lewis: I Think We\'re about Ready to Get on to Something Else There. \'S
a Lot Here to ‑‑ I Really Like to Have Some of the Folks Which Over,
Though and Let the Contractors Start Doing Some of Their Inspection,
Their Own Inspection, and Especially with Our Reduced Workforce, That\'s
a Good Move to Take.

Williams: You Know, One of The Things That Kind of Fit with Maybe the
Question from the Washington Office about Can We Use Some of the New
Tools with Contract Administration, and the Last Question That\'s on
That Tele‑lesson Guide, Can You Combine Performance‑based Specifications
and Contractor Quality Control and the Positive/negative Incentives
Related to Performance and past Performance? Sit Possible for All Those
to Be Combined into this New Contract Environment? And I\'m Kind of
Convinced in My Mind That it Really Can Be Combined, and it Can Work
Well. So with That, You Know, There\'s A Lot of People ‑‑ Things for
People to Consider. So, Julie, I Think It\'s Back to You.

Lewis: Well, Sure. And a Related \"Think Point,\" What Is the Difference
Between The Contractor\'s and the Government\'s Responsibilities as It
Relates to Inspection of Work? Did You Think of Any Differences? One
Difference Might Be the Contractor must Have Some Kind Of Inspection
System to Ensure Contract Compliance. While the Government May Be
Inspect to Go Measure Progress Of the Contractor Towards Completion of
the Contract. Well, Peggy, That Wraps it up For Inspection/acceptance.
So What\'s Next?

Dabb: Well, Let\'s Continue The Discussion That Nina Rose‑hatfield
Started Yesterday About Making Our Payments on Time. Prompt Payments Are
a Key Indicator of How Well We Manage Our Money Overall. And That
Credibility Will Serve Us When it Comes Time to Go to The Budget Table.
Now, Joining Us Live from BLM\'s National Business Center, We Have Three
Prompt Payment Experts, or as They like to Be Called, Interest Reduction
Engineers. Who Do We Have Here Today?

Kopp: Hi, I\'m Jenny Kopp and I Process Contract and Purchase Payment
Payments for New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and Business Center 670.

Rebek: I\'m Suzanne Rebek and I Process Contract and per Purchase Order
Payments for Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah and the Fire
Center.

Davey: I\'m Judy Davey and I Process Contract Payments for The Business
Centerer, the Washington Office, Wyoming and California.

Dabb: Thank You Very Much for Joining Us. We Have the Tape You Sent Us
on How to Avoid Paying Interest. Let\'s Roll That Before We Get to Your
Presentation.

Hello. My Name Is Russ Todaro and I Am With BLM, the National Business
Center in Denver. I Have Been Working for BLM for About Five Years Now.
In That Time, BLM Has Paid out Almost Half a Million Dollars in Interest
That We Could Have Avoided. Can Any of You Guess Why? Then I\'ll Tell
You Why. You Know, We\'ve Paid this Huge Amount of Interest Simply
Because We Were Late Making Our Payments. This Amount Has Been Growing.
I\'ve Noticed It. BLM Has Noticed It. The Department of the Interior Has
Noticed It. Omb Has Noticed It. And Now I Want You to Notice It, Too.
Just Look at the Interest We\'ve Already Paid N 1995 We Paid over
\$176,000. Last Year Alone We Paid over \$100,000. Already this Fiscal
Year, We\'ve Paid Well over \$60,000. We\'re Only Halfway Through It.
None of this Interest Adds Any Value to the Mission of the BLM. It\'s
Time We All Started Working Together to Cut this Monolith Down to Pebble
Size. By Fiscal Year \'99, We as an Agency must Reduce Total Prompt Pay
Interest to No More than \$10,000 for the Entire Year. Think about It.
That Means Each Office Can Only Incur about \$100 for the Entire Year.
That\'s Only \$100 per Office. Hey, this Is Only Pocket Change. And it
Doesn\'t Leave Much Room For Error. But If We Could Cut this down to
Less than \$100 per Office per Year, Boy, Would That Be a Great Savings.
You Know, We Really Don\'t Have a Lot of Time to Meet this Goal. But If
We All Work Together, I Know We Can Do this and You Know How? By
Practicing the Five Good Habits of Highly Effective Payments. One,
Obligate Your Order. Two, Stamp in Your Invoices. Three, Modify Your
Orders. Four, Sign Your Name. And, Five, and Most Importantly, Speed it
Up. That\'s Obligate, Stamp In, Modify, Sign Your Name and Speed It Up.
It\'s Simple, Really. Come, on Let\'s Go See How It\'s Done. Here at the
National Business Center, When We Try to Process a Payment in Ffs, We
Often Discover That the Payment Won\'t Pass Because the Obligation Was
Never Entered into the System in The First Place. Or it Wasn\'t Entered
correctly And the Document ‑‑ in the Document I.d. Format This. Causes
Delay and We Might Have To Pay Interest. Please Obligate Your Order and
Enter it into the Required Format Before You Send Us a Payment Package.
This Saves All of Us Time and Interest. So, Remember, Obligate Your
Order. Many Times in Payment Packages, We Receive Invoices That Haven\'t
Been Stamped in at the Field Office. You Know, Without That Stamp‑in, We
May End up Paying a Lot of Interest. For Reasons I Won\'t Even Bore You
With. Hey, the Bottom Line Is, Not Stamping Means We Might Have to Pay
Interest. So, Please, Remember to Stamp in Your Invoice. Use the Date,
Office Name and The Word BLM and Received. Just like This. This Saves
Interest. Remember, Stamp in Your Invoices. You Know, a Lot of Times We
Get Payment Packages That Don\'t Have The Modifications That Are Needed.
This Can Be a Big Problem. Listen, Can We Talk? You Know, Legally We Can
Only Pay What\'s on the Purchase Order, Unless There Is a Modification.
If a Required Modification Isn\'t Done, We Have to Wait for to You Fix
It. Forgetting to Do a Modification Causes Delay, And, Guess What?
Interest. So, Please, When You Have Changes, Modify Your Order Before
You Send Us the Payment Package. Here Are the Most Common Changes That
Need Modification. The Vendor Name on the Invoice Is Different than the
Vendor Name on the Order. The Quantity on the Invoice Is Different than
the Quantity Ordered. The Price and Resulting Total Actually Charges Is
Different Than the Price and Total Expected. The Fob Point Changed.
Please, Compare Your Invoices With Your Order to Make Sure They Match.
If They Don\'t, Modify Your Order. This Can Really Make a Big Difference
by Saying Rework Later. You Know, it Saves Us Time And, Most
Importantly, it Saves Us, Everybody Together Now, Interest! Remember,
Modify Your Orders. Frequently We Get Payment Packages with Something
Very Critical Missing, a Receiving Signature and Acceptance Date. We
Can\'t Make the Payment Without the Signature and Date. So We Have to
Contact You to Fix This. This Omission Causes Delay and Could Make Us
Pay, One, Two, Three, \\M Interest \\M Please, Check for a Receiving
Signature and Date Before Sending Us a Payment Package. And Make Sure
That They\'re There. This Will Save Us a Lot of Time, And Especially
Interest. So, Please Remember, Sign Your Order. As You Have Seen in
These Examples, Time Is Really of the Essence When it Comes to Saving
Interest. There Are Some Situations Where Speed Really Matters, and it
Gives Us the Best Chance to Save A Lot of Interest. Like Scrutinizing
for a Proper Invoice as Soon as You Get It. You Only Have Seven Days to
Reject It. Did You Know That Construction Progress Payments Are Due
Sooner Than Other Payments, and They Start Chalking up Interest in Only
14 Days, Instead of the Typical 30. I Knew You Did. I Was Just Testing
You. And Preparing Receiving Reports Right Away When You Get the Goods.
Don\'t Wait. Now, When You Get a Call from Us To Fix Something That Was
Mentioned in this Video, I Hope You\'ll Understand Why. Please, Fix it
Fast, Don\'t Delay So We Can Pay. Hey, I\'m a Poe Other and Didn\'t Know
It. \"Fix it Fast, Don\'t Delay, So We Can Pay.\" \\M Hey, Fix it Fast,
Don\'t Delay, So We Can ‑‑ \\M Don\'t You Put Me on Pause. We\'re Almost
Through. In Closing, Please Remember, the Five Ways That You Can Help Us
To Reduce Prompt Pay Interest. Obligate Your Order. Stamp in Your
Invoices. Modify Your Orders. Sign Your Name. And Speed it Up! People,
We Need Your Help to Reduce Prompt Pay Interest to Under \$10,000 by
1999. Hey, Let\'s All Work Together to Achieve this Goal. I Thank You
for Listening and We Thank You for All of Your Hard Efforts in Helping
Us to Reduce Prompt Pay Interest. And You Know What? We\'ll Keep You
Posted on All of Our Progress. See Ya!

Dabb: Now I Can See How We in The Field Can Really Help or Hurt Our
Agency\'s Chances of Getting That Payment Made on Time Without Interest.
So, What Would You Interest Reduction Engineers Who Actually See the
Payment Packages Coming Through Every Day Say Is the Most Critical Thing
We CORs and Cos Can Be Doing Right Now to Make Sure Our Payments Get
Made On Time?

Rebek: Thank You, Peggy, We Appreciate Being Allow to Do Spend Some Time
with You this Morning. As You Heard Yesterday and Today, the Department
of Interior Goal Is to Reduce Prompt Pay Interest to 3% by the End of
the Year, and in Order to Do That, We\'re Going to Need the COR and the
Co Helping Us and Joining Our Team and Together We Can Make That Goal a
Reality. One of the First Things We Need To Consider Is When You Receive
That Invoice, You Need to Look At That Invoice and Make Sure That it Is,
in Fact, a Proper Invoice. Does it Have All the Things That Constitute a
Proper Invoice? Does it Have the Vendor Name? Does it Have a Dollar
Amount, a Description of Goods or Services, a Unit Price or Maybe A
Period of Service? And Then, Does it Have a Total Amount Due? If Any of
These Things Are Missing or Any of the Calculations Are Incorrect, We
Have Seven Days to Return That Invoice to the Vendor. So You Need to
Call Your Contracting Officer and Discuss This and Then, If Necessary,
Return That Invoice. The next Thing Is We Need for You to Be Dating in
Those Invoices. You Can Use a Date Stamp like This. This Is a
Pocket‑sized Date Stamp That Is Self‑inking, Very Easy to Use, and It\'s
Easy to Change the Date. It\'s Just a Matter of Popping That down on the
Paper and You\'ve Got Your Date Received. Or If You Choose Not to Use
This, You May Sign in That Voice. We\'ll Show You How to Do That Right
Now on the Elmo. If You Would Sign Your First Initial, Your Last Name,
Received and You Can Abbreviate Received If You like and Then Use the
Date by the Month, the Day and the Year, and That\'s as Good as a Date
Stamp. But Without That, We Are Obligated to Use the Actual Date Of the
Invoice, Which in Many Cases Shortens the Time Frame That We Have to
Make That Payment And, Therefore, Could Result in Interest. The next
Thing That You Need to Remember Is to Put Your Acceptance Date on the
1510‑10 Or on the Received Area of the Of‑347. If You ‑‑ You No Better
than Anyone When Those Goods or Services Were Actually Received And If
You Put Those Dates on Either One of Those Forms, Then We Can Age the
Payment from That Date, Which Gives Us a Little Extra Time to Make the
Payment And, Thus, Avoids Prompt Pay Interest. The Other Thing You Need
to Remember on the Acceptance Date, In Order for Us to Be Able to Use
That, You Have to Date in Those Invoices. So Remember to Make Sure It\'s
a Proper Invoice, Date in That Invoice and Then Put Your Acceptance Date
for the Goods or Services. Now Here\'s Judy Davey to Discuss A Little
Bit about the 1510‑10 And the Of‑347.

Davey: Hello. If You Use the 1510‑10 Pay Cert. As the Method for
Payment, There Are Certain Items That You Need To Fill in Completely,
Accurately and Carefully. Number One, the Contract Number. Be Sure to
Check the Award Page Of the Contract or Block 3 of The Of‑347 and Copy
the Number Exactly as it Appears There. The Second Item Is the Name on
The Contract. Be Sure to to Check the Award Name. Be Sure the Name Is
Exactly the Same as it Is Shown on the Contract. Be Sure the Acceptance
Date Is The Correct Date. And Be Sure That the Item Marked In the
Partial Progress or Final Is Correct. Partials Are for Goods and
Services Contracts. Progress Is for Construction Contracts. And Final Is
for Any Kind of Contract. The Description of Services, Once Again, Needs
to Match Exactly Either the Bid Schedule In the Contract or Item 17 of
The Of‑347. Be Sure That the Description, The Estimated Amount and All
the Rest of the Extensions Match Exactly. When it Comes to the Exact
Amount That You\'re Paying in This Particular Payment, Be Sure That Your
Math Is Correct, and Then the Payment Will Be Made Correctly in Denver.
If this Particular 1510‑10 Is to Be Used as an Invoice, Be Sure That the
Contractor Signs and Dates above Your Signature Before You Send to it
Your Contracting Officer. Once Again, Be Sure the Math Is Correct, Be
Sure the Contractor Signs and Dates the 1510‑10 If It\'s to Be Used as
an Invoice. On to Jenny.

Kopp: I Am Going to Talk to You Guys about Speed. Once You Get Your
Invoice and Have Logged it in as Suzanne Previously Explained, Let\'s
Try To Get it out to Us as Soon as Possible F You Receive an Invoice
That Is Incorrect for Whatever Reason You Believe it To Be, Please
Contact Your Contracting Officer, and Between Both of You Make a
Decision. We Need You Guys to Make a Decision Whether to Short‑pay That
Invoice or Send it Back and Request a New Invoice. Please Do Not Hold
onto this for Think Reason ‑‑ Any Reason. This Might Jeopardize Late
Payments Already Coming into Us. So Between You and Your Contracting
Officer, Please Make A Decision. We Need Those as Soon as Possible. And
If You Receive an Invoice For Whatever Reason You Believe Already Is
Late or Soon Will Be Late, Please Fax it to Us Through Your Contracting
Officer. We Can Pay it off of a Fax, but We Need the Hard Copy Followed
Up in the Mail, and Also Remember, We Can Always Short‑pay an Invoice,
but We Can Never Pay over the Invoice. So Between You and Your
Contracting Officer, Make the Decision to Either Short‑pay in That Voice
or Get a Corrected Invoice. You and You Can Fax it to Us Through Your
Contracting Officer At 303‑236‑6412. That\'s All We Have Here at the
Business Center. Back to You, Peggy.

Dabb: Thank You Very, Very Much, All of You. Jenny, I Do Have a Question
for You. When You Talk about Short Paying An Invoice, What Exactly Does
That Mean?

Kopp: it Means We Can Pay Less than the Amount Requested If There\'s a
Dispute over the Amount That the CORs Think We Should Pay or the
Contracting Officers Think We Should Pay Versus the Vendor, We Can Short
Pay the Amount on the Invoice, And We Can Pay the Remaining Amount at a
Later Date or with Another Payment Package, but We Can\'t Pay More than
They Have Invoiced Us.

Dabb: Thanks for That Clarification. Did You Have Anything, Julie, or
Dave, You Wanted to Ask?

Williams: Let Me Add One Comment from the Outsider Perspective, the
Contractor Perspective in Relate to Payments. Contractors Don\'t Want
the Interest, Either. All They Want Is the Regular Payment F They Just
Pay Them on Time, They\'re Just Tickled to Death and Can You Keep Your
Interest and You Both Win.

Dabb: Ok. Well, Suzanne, Judy and Jenny, Thanks for All Your Insights
and We Will Be Getting Back with You Guys Later in the Show. Ok?

All: Thanks!

Dabb: this Wraps up Our Presentation on Prompt Payments, And If You Want
to Know Anything At All about Prompt Payments, Can You Find it at
web.blm.gov/nbc. That Will Tell You Anything and Everything You Want to
Know. This Concludes Our Morning Session. We\'re Always Ready to Hear
from You. So Call or Fax Us at Any Time With Your Questions. And It\'s
That Time Again, Break Time! While You\'re on Your 30‑minute Break,
We\'ll Leave a \"Think Point\" on the Screen for to You Consider, and
the Point Is ‑‑ What Arrangements Have You Made To Ensure Payments Are
Processed When You\'re out of the Office? After the Break, Jenny,
Suzanne And Judy Will Join Us to Discuss The \"Think Point\" and Any
Other Calls or Faxes That We May Have. See You in a Few Minutes!

Dabb: Finally, We\'re on the Home Stretch. We\'ve Only Got a Little Bit
More To Go until We\'re Done. Let\'s Talk a Little about the \"Think
Point\" and Take Any Questions That We Have about the Prompt Pay Subject
While Our Experts Are Still with Us. Suzanne, Jenny and Judy, Are You
Still There?

All: We\'re Here!

Dabb: Ok. Our First Fax Is from ‑‑ Not Sure Where It\'s From. Didn\'t
Put down Who it Was. Regarding the Video on Prompt Pay, If You Receive
an Incorrect Invoice, Why Would You Do a Modification to the Order to
Match the Invoice as Shown in The Video?

Kopp: You Wouldn\'t Necessarily Do a Modification to Match the Invoice.
You Would Call Your Contracting Officer to Find out What Is Incorrect on
That Invoice, Whether It\'s the Estimated Quantity Changed or the Unit
Price Had Changed. You Might Have to Do a Modification, Though, If it Is
One of Those. But If it Is Not ‑‑ If It\'s Not An Estimated Quantity or
a Unit Price, Then Typically You Would Send it Back and Ask for a
Corrected Invoice ‑‑ Invoice That Does Match.

Dabb: Thanks, Jenny. Here Is One from Worland, Wyoming. Who Date Stamps
Payment Forms or When Is Date Stamping Done?

Rebek: the First Person to Receive in That Voice Should Date Stamp In,
or as We Showed You Earlier, Should Handwrite The Date and Their Name,
but the First Person That Gets Ahold of That, If You Don\'t Have a Mail
Room, the First Person That Gets Ahold of it Should Be Dating it In. On
a Payment Package, If You Were Using a 1510 for an Invoice, You Would
Want to Date That In, Then.

Dabb: Ok.

Rebek: Does That Answer the Question?

Dabb: I Think So. Here\'s One More. Explain the Difference Twin the
14‑day Payments and the 30‑day Payments as Defined in Prompt Pay Act.

Davey: the 14‑day Payments Are Progress Construction Payments, and the
30‑day Payments Would Be the Services, The Partials and Any Final
Payments.

Dabb: and That\'s All Contingent Upon, Again, the Type Of Commodity, but
Also the Date, Right? I Mean ‑‑ Judged Well, the 14‑day Payments Are.
The Progress Construction Payments. And All Others Are the 30‑day
Payments. But the 14‑days Is Contingent on The Dates We Use for Aging,
Correct. Is That What You Meant?

Dabb: the Final Payment for Construction Is Aged for 30 Days, Right?

Davey: Is a 30‑day Payment, Correct. It\'s Only the Progress Payments
Are a 14‑day Payment for Construction.

Williams: I Think You All Have Done a Terrific Job, and If People Would
Understand That Those Aren\'t Rules That Were Made up at the Business
Service Center. Those Are Rules That Congress Made Up, Right, like
14‑day Payment and 30‑day Payment and Pay Interest and So You All Are
Just Simply Trying to Comply With the Law. So Sometimes it Feels like
Maybe You Are the Ones Who Are Doing It All Wrong When Really What You
Are Trying to Do Is Do it Right. As a Contractor, We Appreciate It.

Rebek: Thank You Very Much.

Dabb: Thank You, Thank You, Thank You. We Do Have Some More Faxes.
They\'re Not Really Related to The Prompt Pay Team Here, but We Would
like Them to Stay There For a Bit in Case We Get Another One Come In.
Would That Be All Right?

Rebek: Sure, That\'s Fine.

Dabb: this One Is from Idaho. Stopping a Contractor\'s Work Due To
Unreasonable Delays Caused by A Third‑party Contractor\'s Failure to
Perform His Contract, Is the Government Required to Pay the Contractor
for Delays Caused by the Other Contractor?

Williams: I Could Reach for It, but Let Me Start. Have to Make Some
Assumptions. This Is One of the Things That Happens Whenever, If You\'re
the Contracting Officer and You Get That Telephone Call and Somebody
Starts Giving You Facts and It\'s Like, Wait, Tell Me a Little More,
Otherwise I Have to Kind Of Start Operating on Some Assumptions. Let Me
Say, Number One, You Could Likely Have a Clause in There Which Requires
Contractors To Coordinate Their Work with Other Contractors in the Area
or With Government Activities. Now, to the Extent That You Have That In,
It\'s up to Contractors To Coordinate Their Work. But, If, in Fact, the
Situation Was Different, Maybe You\'re Doing the Building Construction
Or You\'re Doing Some Kind of Work and It\'s Supposed to Be Completed in
Time for the Carpet Contractor to Come in and Lay The Carpet, and You
Don\'t Get Your Job Done Initially, Then You Are Likely to Be Liable for
That Second Contractor That Was Delayed. So You Would Probably Want to
Assess Damages Against the Principal Contractor Because You\'ve Been Put
in a Position Where Their Lateness Has Caused You a Liability. So in
Each One of These Kinds of Situations, We Really Have to Look at the
Facts and Say, Ok, Who Is Responsible, Which Party Accepted the
Liability, Which Are the Facts in this Exact Situation. So from There We
Begin to Say, Ok, it Looks like We Might Be Responsible, Or, No, We
Don\'t Think We Are, and the Best Thing Is Early Recognition, Start
Trying to Be Open about Who Might Be Responsible and Look For Some
Solutions. But, You Know, Depending on the Facts, You May Be Liable,
Depending on Another Set of Facts, it May Be the Contractor\'s Problem,
Particularly If It\'s a Delay Between a Prime and the Sub. If it Was the
Subcontractor That\'s Late, That\'s Their Problem with the Prime.
Depends on the Facts.

Dabb: this Is from the National Park Service in Anchorage. Please
Discuss All of the Theoretical and Practical Requirements for the
Government Cost Estimate Related to the Different Types of Contracts and
Change Orders. For Instance, Who Does Them, How Are They Done and How
Accurate Must They Be?

Williams: Let Me Also Say Something on this One. Since Part of That
Relates to Change Order and Change Order Pricing, and That\'s the next
Segment We Have Coming Up, Let Me Say Save at Least a Portion Of That,
like Preparing a Government Estimate and Then Maybe We Can Talk about
the Significance of It. If, Peggy, You Would Remind Me We Want to
Address Part of When That We Come Back to the Modifications/changes
Section of Our Presentation.

Dabb: Sure. We Got Another Fax for the Prompt Pay Team. This Is from the
Milwaukee Field Office. How Long Does Denver Hold Invoices Before
Starting Payments?

Rebek: Well, That Would Depend on Our Volume Here. But Normally We Would
Pay Those Just as Soon as We Received Them In. We Wouldn\'t Hold
Anything. It Would Just Depend on What Other Volume Is Sitting Here
Waiting to Be Paid.

Dabb: When You Say You Pay Them as Soon as You Receive Them, You, in
Essence, Process Them for Payment and Start the Aging Process and So
Forth, Right?

Rebek: Exactly. Exactly. Ffs Actually Determines the Date. We Enter, You
Know, a Few Key Dates, but Ffs Determines When That Should Be Paid, and
So it Would Depend On, You Know, Actual Aging According to Prompt Pay,
but We Would Process Those Right Away. We Wouldn\'t Hold Any Payment
Package. Unless There Was Something Wrong With It.

Dabb: Ok. Just in Standard Ways You Would Do it as Soon as You Possibly
Could.

Williams: and Probably Means That the ‑‑ Just Because You\'ve Processed
It, the Check Is Not Started Yet. It Still Has to Go Through Treasury
and When the Magic Data Lives, Treasury Sends the Correct, Right?

Rebek: Exactly. Ffs Determines the Due Date on Any Payment.

Davey: Two Working Days Before That Payment Is Due, It\'s Sent to the
Overnight Cycle to Treasury, and Then the Process Is Begun with Treasury
to Have The Actual Check or as of January 1st, it Will Be Electronic
Payment Made to the Bank.

Dabb: That Electronic Payment Is for All Payments?

Davey: Right. As of January 1st, the Debt Collection Act Recently Passed
By Congress Requires That All Payments Be Electronic Payments Rather
than Checks.

Dabb: What about Those Entities That Don\'t Have a Place For the
Electronic Payment? In Other Words, They Don\'t Have A Financial
Institution?

Davey: We\'re Not Finding That Any of the Companies Are in That
Position.

Dabb: but We Have Some Small Contractors That, You Know, They\'re Just
Independent, Just Family‑owned and Operated and They May Not Have an
Institution. How Will We Handle Those?

Davey: the Only Waiver That Is Being Considered at this Point Is for the
Individual or The Sole Proprietor. So Your Smaller Companies That Are
Partnerships Would Still Have ‑‑ Would Still Fall under This Debt
Collection Act and Need to Get Electronic Payments. We Do Not Have a
Waiver Form in Hand Yet, but the Debt Collection Team Is Working on It,
and We Expect One to Be in Just a Few Days Available to Us. At this
Point, I Only Know of About Three Vendors Who Have Expressed an Interest
in Not Having Electronic Payments.

Dabb: So this Form That You\'re Working On, That Will Be Mailed to Those
People Who Don\'t Want to Be Paid Electronically? Is That What You\'re
Saying?

Davey: I Don\'t Think We\'ve Gotten Exactly to That Process Yet. I Am
Working on a Detail with The Debt Collection Team Right Now, and the
List ‑‑ the Three That I Have in My ‑‑ in My Folder I Will Call When We
Do Get the Form and See If They Have Changed Their Mind or If They Would
like to Go under the Waiver Process.

Dabb: Ok. Thanks.

Davey: but Nothing on That Is At this Point Even to the Point Where We
Can Get Signatures.

Dabb: Ok. Thanks, Judy. I Have Some More Faxes That Are Not Related
Quite to Prompt Pay, But Maybe We\'ll Get Some More in Here in a Minute.
This Is from Worland, Wyoming. Could You Explain Further Terminating the
Contractor for Convenience Clause.

Lewis: You Were Talking about That.

Williams: Who Brought ‑‑ Who In this Crowd Brought up Termination for
Convenience? You Know, There Is a Clause in Your Contracts, Pretty Much
Standard, It\'s Probably Even Going to Be Found in Some Short Form in
Your Purchase Orders, But If for Some Reason after Award the Government
No Longer Needs the Goods or Services, it Provides a Remedy, and the
Government Can Terminate That Contract for the Convenience of The
Government, Depending on When it Happens and What the Impacts Are That
Cost Could Be Low, Could Be Moderate, Could Be High. But the Idea Is
That the Government Does Have the Right To Bring its Bargain to a Close.
In the Commercial World, We Would Call That Breach of Contract, but in
the Federal Contracts Arena, We Developed a Clause Which Provides an
Administrative Remedy and Basically the Contractor Could Be Entitled to
Payment for Work They\'ve Performed and it Could Well Be If That
They\'ve Not Performed Much in the Way of Work Yet but They\'ve Incurred
Costs in Preparation for Performance of Work, Then it Would Be Possible
to Sit down And Negotiate a Settlement and Close out the Contract. To
the Extent That Any of Those Options Become Necessary, I Tell You,
There\'s Two Key People Involved and One Is Going to Be The Contracting
Officer and the Other One Is Likely to Be Somebody in the Solicitor\'s
Office and Maybe Even Somebody Over in Finance. So Some of Those Other
Team Members Get Called into Action. So Complicated Stuff, but it Can Be
Done.

Dabb: Ok. Well, That Pretty Much Does it For All of Our Faxes That
We\'ve Received and I Just Want to Say That That Interactive Segment Was
Pretty Cool. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You So Much for All the Calls
and The Faxes That We\'ve Received, And I Want to Make Sure to Tell You,
Suzanne, Judy and Jenny, Thank You Very, Very Much for Coming Here Today
and Helping Us Out on this Important Subject. We\'ll Talk to You Guys
Later.

Davey: You\'re Very Welcome.

Kopp: Bye‑bye.

Rebek: Thanks Again.

Dabb: Moving into Our next Segment, We\'re Going to Talk About Some
Changes in and Contract Modifications. We Already Sort of Started There
Just a Few Minutes Ago. Julie?

Lewis: So Let\'s Move Right In. Changes Are Authorized by Clauses in the
Contract. There May Be More than One Clause That Authorizes a Change,
But They May Provide for Very Different Considerations. Unlike the
Commercial or Private Contract, the Government Includes a Clause Which
Permits Itself to Make Unilateral Changes to a Contract. This Also
Places a Responsibility on the Government To Make an Equitable
Adjustment For Such Changes.

Williams: Well, Julie Said The Magic Word, Changes, and That\'s a Clause
That\'s Going to Be Found in Each and Every One Of the Contracts Which
You Have. Again, a Clause That\'s Not Necessarily Normal in the
Commercial World, but It\'s Been Around in Government Contracts For
Probably Some 100 Years. What it Does Is Authorize the Contracting
Officer and it Says \"May,\" So It\'s Permissive and Then the Question
Sometimes Comes up Is When Can They Make Changes, and the Language of
the Clause Says \"At Any Time.\" Then They Can Make Changes That Are
Within the General Scope of The Contract. So for Those of You Looking at
The Video, You\'ll See That You Have a Pretty Good‑looking Moose In That
Picture, and Those of You That Only Have the Tele‑lesson Plan See One of
the Wild Javelina from Arizona. But in Either Case the Attempt Is to
Begin to Get to You Think About What Is Scope. And the Scope Is, as the
Legal Profession Would Tell Us, What Was Within the Contemplation of The
Parties When They Entered Into the Contract. So Maybe ‑‑ in One Sense
the Scope Is What\'s Within the View Of this Telescope. I Mean, I See
the Animal I\'m Looking At, I Wanted to Shoot, But I See a Range Around
That. So Scope Is Sometimes like a Range. There\'s Not an Absolute
Definition of Scope, and Different Contracting Officers May Come out
with Different Kinds of Answers. So Early on in the Contract Changes
Process, it Really Is Important for to You Find out From Your
Contracting Officer What Scope Might Be. To Give You an Example, Maybe
You ‑‑ If You Had a Contract to Do Janitorial Service in Your Office
Building and Then Somebody Decided, Well, You Know, We Just Lost the
Warehouse Person and Now We Don\'t Have Anybody Can That Do the Cleanup
Periodically out There, So Why Don\'t We Maybe Modify Our Contract, Can
We Use the Changes Clause and Then Add Warehouse Janitorial Work? Well,
Sounds like a Logical Thing to Do. You Need the Work. Somebody\'s
Available. They Might Be Interested, and Yet If We Think about Scope, it
Could Well Be That the Scope of Janitorial Services Is Pretty Much
Limited to the Building That You Are Performing Janitorial Services In,
the Office, That Physical Structure, The Outside Boundaries of That. You
Know. So the Extent to Which You Want To Change the Build ‑‑ Work in The
Building, That\'s Likely to Be a Change of Scope, but to Do The Work in
Another Building Some Folks Would Say Outside the Scope. Now, I Don\'t
Want You to Think That Things Can\'t Be Done Just Because They\'re
Outside the Scope. You Have a Competent Group of Procurement
Professionals out There and When You Come and Talk To Them About, You
Know, \"We Need Some Janitorial Service in The Warehouse,\" You Are I
Thinking Maybe of Scope and Change and They\'re Thinking of New
Transaction. So They\'re Going to Ask You Something Like, \"Well, How
Much Money Are You Talking About?\" And So You Give Them Some Figure And
as a Result of Your Figure, They Decide, You Know, \"Can I Get this Done
as a Separate Contract Without Competition?\" And If It\'s a Small
Dollar, They May Simply Add it to the Existing Contract but It\'s Done
As a New Contract Referencing Old Contract Administrative Procedures. So
in Their Mind, They\'re Doing A New Procurement and Justifying The Lack
of Competition. And So the Scope Is Something That the Contracting
Officers Are Going to Worry More about Than You as a COR. You Should
Express Your Needs If Your Contract Needs to Be Modified. Then Let Your
Co Figure out How They Can Accomplish That Modification. So That\'s How
You Begin to Work Together. So Changes Within the General Scope. So
We\'re Talking about What Did We Contemplate Doing. When You Begin to
Write Statements of Work, Things of That Nature, Sometimes We Have An
Introductory Provision and it Might Say, \"Doing Cultural Resource
Inventory on the ‑‑ Let\'s Say the Socorro Field Office Area.\" Anything
Within the Socorro Field Office Could Not Within The Scope of That.
Because You Have Defined an Area. Whereas If You Had Said Certain Kinds
of Archaeological Investigation in Section 17, Township 9 North, Range
27 East, You\'re Pretty Well Limited to That Geographical Location. So
Scope Is Something That the Contracting Officer Thinks About. You
Describe Needs and Then Let Them Figure out How to Get Those Needs Met.
Then a Second Point about this Changes Clause Is That, as I Indicated
Earlier in Our Broadcast in the Training Session, Is That You Have
Rights, but You Frequently Have Corresponding Responsibilities. So You
May Have the Right to Change the Contract, the Right To Make the
Modification, the Right to Do it in Writing as it Says, but If There Is
a Change In Price, Then You Have the Responsibility to Make an Equitable
Adjustment. So If There\'s an Increase or a Decrease and We\'re Talking
about The Cost of Performance and Then There\'s Some Other Words in
There about Even the Work That\'s Not Directly Affected, Then Maybe
There Should Be an Equitable Adjustment. So Somehow, Then, the Task
Becomes, How Do I Compute the Cost for an Equitable Adjustment? And in
Part That Cost Calculation Is a Little Bit like A Government Estimate
Was That We Would Maybe Have Made Mention Of in That One Fax. Somehow to
Compute the Cost of a Modification, We Need to Go Back And Price the
Original Work, and Then We Price the Changed Work. So If We Looked at
the Example In Your Tele‑guide, If You Were Thinking about We Had a
Contract For a Carriage with a Horse, and Assuming it Was Within the
Scope To Modify to That Simply Become A Wagon, Then We Would Sit down
And Try and Compute or Price out What Was the Cost of the Original
Contract, the Horse, The Wagon, the Buggy, the Associated Requirements
and Then Once We Know What That Price Is, Now We Begin to Say, Well,
What\'s the Price of the Wagon? And So the Difference Between The Two Is
the Equitable Adjustment. So It\'s a Pricing Kind of an Exercise. So
There\'s One of Those Things Where It\'s Not ‑‑ No Scientific, Precise
Example of How You Compute. If You Think about Now the Independent
Government Estimate, If I Was ‑‑ We\'ll Touch on Government Estimate
Now. If I Were Going out Initially to Procure, and I Could Get
Competition in the Mark Place, I Need Some Information from You, And We
Call That a Government Estimate or a Budget. Sometimes, Unfortunately,
They Are the Same. What I Would like up Front Is an Independent Estimate
of What it Might Cost to Enter into a Contract. But If I Can Get Several
Vendors That Give Me Prices, Your Government Estimate Is Maybe Not So
Critical, Because the Marketplace Will Give Me Some Indication of What
Is the Fair Price and If I Can Compare Contractor A, B and C in Their
Prices and We Say, Well, That Fits Within the Budget and How Much Your
Estimate Is, in That Case Your Estimate Is Not So Critical. Now, Let\'s
Move to the Change Situation. If We Only Have One Contractor, As Steve
Shapiro Had this Morning in His Oregon Example, If There\'s a Single
Contractor And They Were to Come up with a Price Proposal, and Then I
Only Have the Government Estimate, And in That Case the Government
Estimate Is Absolutely Critical. Its Accuracy Is Critical. I Have
Nothing Else to Compare To. I Have a Price Proposal from a Contractor,
and I Have a Government Estimate. So Your Accuracy Is More Critical for
Me There than it Is When I Have Other Price Information to Compare To.
So We\'ll Touch on That, Preparation of Government Estimate for Changes,
a Little Bit Late Inner this Segment. But That\'s at Least a Couple
Aspects of Government Estimates For Procurement Versus Government
Estimates for Change Orders. The Changes Clause Is One of the Most
Important Clauses That You Have in Your Contract. Again, You\'re Within
the Scope And it Gives Us Examples about What Scope Is in That First
Section. I Didn\'t Touch on It, but It\'s In Your Course Material What
Is Within the Scope. But to the Extent That the Government May Run into
Things That it Did Not Anticipate, it Gives You Flexibility to Adjust
Contract Requirements. To the Extent There Is New Technology, Maybe When
the Contract Was Written You Envisioned Getting a Certain Kind of Copier
or Computer and By the Time the Contractor Is Beginning to Perform,
There\'s Some New Technology. There\'s a New Chip Out. It\'s Better. It
Costs a Little Bit More Money, but it Makes Good Sense To Buy That. In
That Case, Might Be Within The Scope of the Contract, We\'re Buying a
Computer, it Has a Certain Kind of Chip in It, New Technology Allows Us
to Get a Newer, Better, Faster Chip In, And So the Changes Clause Gives
You That Flexibility to Do the Right Kinds of Things to Adjust Work. It
Also Gives the Contractor an Opportunity to Make Suggestions To You
about a Different Way of Doing Things. You Know, Sometimes Contractors
Actually Even Have Good Ideas. Now, Sometimes They Cost More Money, but
Maybe You Get More Value for That. Maybe the Job Approached Differently
Will Last Longer for Just a Little Bit More in Terms Of Cost. So Somehow
the Changes Clause Is The Vehicle That Lets You Do Those Kinds of
Things, Make Positive Changes When Necessary Or Take Advantages of the
Things That Contractors Can Offer You Whenever They Have a Better Way Of
Doing the Job. Go Ahead, Peggy.

Dabb: I Just Got a Fax and It\'s Right down Your Alley What You\'re
Talking About.

Williams: I Paid Them a Lot Of Money to Send That Fax In.

Dabb: it Says: Please Explain and Clarify Who Does What. For Instance,
Who Identifies the Need for Change? Who Requests Proposal from the
Contractor? Who Develops the Government Estimate, the Co, the COR or the
Pi? And Who Negotiations the Details Of Change?

Williams: Ok. Sounds like a Pretty Comprehensive Question, and If I Knew
Exactly Who That Was From, I Might Put Them Right by the Side of Me and
We Would Sit down And Go Through this Step by Step. So since this Is on
That Last Page, the One That You\'re on Already, We\'ll Skip down
Temporarily, We Don\'t Need to Change the Video, but Let Me Walk You
Through That Process For a Minute, and We\'ll Bring to It a Summary at
the End of this Segment. But as a Critical Part of this Whole Job of
Change and Change Modification and Recognition, And Let\'s Say That
It\'s the COR That\'s out on the Job and on Top Of the Job and Maybe
Even Ahead Of the Job and They Kind of Know What\'s Going on and They
See the Opportunity to Do Something New And Different. Or, on the Other
Hand, Sometimes They See That Something Serious Is Happening and They
Not Only Have the Opportunity, but They Desperately Need to Change the
Contract. So Somehow That Need Comes from The COR. At That Point It\'s
Probably Wise To Touch Base with Your Boss, You Know, Somebody That Has
Program Funding and Program Responsibility That Needs to Know About, You
Know, Can We Change this Contract. I Mean, Maybe You Need to Go Back to
Your Environmental Impact Statement or Environmental Assess Ment and See
If It\'s Possible to Make That Change. So the First Thing We Want to Do
When Changes Are Necessary, the COR Recognizes That and Gets
Programmatic Approval or Coordination. Once It\'s Ok with the Boss That
This Needs to Be Done, Probably The next Question That Somebody Is Going
to Ask this COR Is, \"Well, Who\'s Got Money?\" If the Answer Is \"We
Don\'t,\" Then as a Co I Would Say, Don\'t Talk to Me. If You Want a
Change, It\'s Going To Cost, Think Money. So the ‑‑ So the COR
Recognizes The Need, They Coordinate Program People to Find out What\'s
Necessary, They Get Program Approvals If Appropriate, They Find out
Whether Money Is Available, and When They Have Answered Those Questions,
They Talk with Their Contracting Officer and Maybe The Dialogue Goes
along the Lines Of, \"I Have this Terrific Idea,\" or Maybe \"I Have
this Wild Idea,\" Whatever Might Be The Appropriate Language and the Co
Is Probably Going to Start Asking Questions Like, \"What Are You up to
Now?\" And the Thought Is, You Know, Is It Within the Scope? So Once
They\'re Satisfied It\'s Within the Scope, Then They Might Say, Well,
You Know, How Much Money Are We Talking About? So They Begin to Think
Dollars. And So Scope and Amount Is Important for Them. At That Point
They Really Want To Know about Scope Because If It\'s Something That You
Absolutely Need and the Contractor Doesn\'t Want to Do It, and it Is
Within the Scope Of the Contract, Your Contracting Officer Can Require
Your Contractor to Perform the Work. Now, in the Private World, That
Can\'t Happen. But the Government Says, If You Work for Us, We Write the
Rules And One of the Rules They Wrote Is That the Contractor Will
Proceed with the Changed Work as Long as It\'s Within the Scope of The
Contract. And So Now the COR Has Concurrence of the Contracting Officer.
Now, at That Point, Probably We\'re in a Position to Have the COR Go
Back to Say to the Contractor, You Know, We Have an Opportunity to Make
Some Adjustments out Here and We Wonder If You Would Be Interested. Or
We Have the Need, or Whatever The Language Is. And Part of What They\'re
Going To Have to Do Is Give That Contractor, this Is the Revised
Specification, These Are the Revised Requirements. This Is Newt
Statement of Work. Can You Provide Me with a Cost Proposal? And Break it
Down, If You Can, In Terms Of. And So We Ask the Contractor to Give Us a
Proposal, and While The Contractor Is Developing That Proposal, That COR
Is Back There Developing an Independent Government Estimate. Somewhere
along the Line When We Get the Contractor\'s Proposal And We Get the
Independent Government Estimate and it Looks Like It\'s Within the
Ballpark, The Co May Likely Say, COR, Why Don\'t You Go Ahead and See If
You Can Sit down and Reach Agreement with the Contractor on Price, but
Not More Than. They May Place a Limit. Or it Might Be That Between the
Two of You, You Decide That It\'s More Appropriate for the Contracting
Officer to Call the Contractor, Meet with Them, and Negotiate Pricing.
So the Step Could Be That the Co Does it or the COR Does It. We Know the
Step Has to Happen. Somehow There Needs to Be That Agreement. Then We
Can Order the Work to Be Done. Backing up Maybe to the Order Placement,
Whether or Not It\'s Unilateral or Bilateral, and That\'s ‑‑ Depends on
If It\'s in The Scope, We Can Certainly Order It. On the Other Hand, If
the Clause Is ‑‑ If the Change Is Outside The Scope, the Contracting
Officer Can Still Negotiate It. So We Have Unilateral and We Have
Bilateral. One Is Negotiated, the Other Is Ordered. If You Order the
Change to Take Place, Somewhere Later You Have To Negotiate the Price
Adjustment. If You Are Always Thinking of Costing More, Remember, Change
Orders Could Cost Less. When You Go to the Contractor With What Do You
Think Is a Reduction in Price, They Might Be, I Can Accommodate That
Change and it Won\'t Cost You Much More Money. Maybe Then You Think,
Wow, it Won\'t Cost Much More. In Fact, You Should Be Getting Some Money
Back. So Change Orders Can Be Increases in Cost or Decreases In Cost.
They Can Be Increases in Time or Decreases in Time. That\'s the
Equitable Adjustment Of a Change Order. So We Have this Opportunity to
Negotiate. We Have this Opportunity to Discuss. We Make Them Unilateral
or We Make Them Bilateral. And the Basic Government Desire Is to
Negotiate Time and Money, Those Kinds of Terms, in Advance. We Kind of
Want to Know Before We Say Go What the Cost Is Going To Be. You Know, If
We Can Order the Contractor to Perform, Which Legally Can You Do under
the Scope Statement, You Know, You Probably Want to Know What the Costs
Are Going to Be of That. It\'s Not Real Smart to Say Perform Today,
We\'ll Price it Out Tomorrow, Because There Is No Incentive for the
Contractor To Be Cost Efficient and Effective. So the Government\'s
Preferred Provision Is Pre‑priced Change Orders, That\'s by Mutual
Agreement, Bilateral Negotiation, in Advance of the Work, and If You
Can, on a Fixed‑price Basis. That Way You Know Exactly What You\'re
Getting into When You\'re Involved in Contract Administration. Now the
Last Slide in this Segment Deals with Kind of What Is the COR\'s Role or
Co\'s Role. You Can Certainly See That CORs Do an Awful Lot Involved in
Making Changes to the Contract. The Thing They Don\'t Have Is the
Authority to Sign. Ok? Remember When I Said under Your Delegation You
Have Full Authority Except For? And You Can\'t Make Changes. But I Also
Indicated on Those Things That You Don\'t Have the Authority to Take
Action About, You Probably Do Much of the Staff Work and Coordination
and All Those Kinds of Things, and So the Contracting Officer Is The One
That Has the Authority To Make That Commitment for the Government and So
That\'s What Their Job Is, Just like They Signed the Original Contract,
And They Signed Terminations, They Also Sign Modification. So You Do a
Lot of Work in Administration and They Get to Sign Their Name. But
That\'s What We Call Teamwork, Right? And You Get to Be Heroes and Times
They Get to Be Heroes. It\'s Those of Us That Are Contractors That Are
Sometimes The Villains, Maybe. All Right. So, with That, Back to Julie.

Lewis: That Was Good. Now, a \"Think Point\" Related to Modifications.
What Contract Changes Can Be Made Without a Written Modification? Do You
Make Verbal Changes in The Contracts That You Administer? What about
Changes That Just Happen? Well, Constructive Changes Do Happen, Either
Through an Action Or Inaction by the Government. When These Occur,
Please Contact Your Co Immediately. We\'re Now Going to Move into the
Last Topic of the Course, Which Is Problem Resolution. In Recent Years
Congress Has Passed Laws Which Encourage the Use of Alternative Dispute
Resolution. Which Is Commonly Referred to as Adr. The Costs of
Litigation and the Impact on Personnel Create a Positive Incentive to
Find Alternative Methods to Resolving Contracts Related to Problems And
Disagreements.

Williams: So down to That Final Segment, Right? You Know, this Is the
Solution To Problems, Right? And Alternative Dispute Resolution. That
must Mean If It\'s an Alternative, There must Have Been Some Other Kind
of Disputes Resolution That Existed, and it Really True There Was, and
There Is, and It\'s Not Fun to Go Through It, If You\'ve Ever Been
There. That\'s What We Would Normally Call the Disputes Clause, the
Extent That Parties Can Disagree, There Is a Procedure By Which
Disagreements Are Resolved. Unfortunately, over the Years, That Process
Has Gotten to Be Very Costly and Very Time Consuming and One of the
Disadvantages Maybe Is That, as You Start down That Road of Contract
Disputes, Claims Disputes and Appeals, You Know, You Never for Sure If
You\'re Going to Win That Case. So You May Well Invest a Lot of Money, a
Lot of Time, a Tremendous Impact on You and Your Organization and End up
Losing. So Somewhere along the Line Then It Became Important for the
Government and Others to Think About, Isn\'t There Some Alternative to
the Legal, the Board of Contract Appeal System Or the Court System. So
as a Result, We Come out with What\'s Called Adr, Alternative Disputes
Resolution. There Are Some Objectives for Adr. They\'re Consistent with
the Reason for the Statute. The Objective, Then, Is to in Increase the
Opportunity for a Relatively, You Notice it Doesn\'t Say Inexpensive, it
Just Says Relatively Inexpensive and Expeditious. So Maybe Touch on a
Couple of Those Words There, Again, Not Necessarily Inexpensive, It\'s
Relatively Inexpensive. That\'s Kind of like in Contracting We Always
Use That Term Reasonable and Depends and Those Other Kind of Really
Precise Words That Drive CORs Crazy. Well, It\'s Not Free, but it
Typically Is Going to Be less Time Consuming and Expensive Than it Would
Be If You Go Through the Litigation Process. I Would Suggest That If You
Ask Your Solicitors, They Would Be Anxious to Encourage to You Use Adr
Instead of Putting Them Through All the Efforts of Developing Claim
Files and Appeals Files and Going Through The Complicated Process. So
Adr Was Developed to Try and Minimize the Impact. There Are Some
Different Kinds Of Adr Systems That Are Available. Some of Them Are
Going on Maybe Today. I Mentioned Yesterday Basketball. Well, I Hear
Today Maybe They\'ve Wiped the Table Clean and They\'re Starting over
and They\'re Going Through What Might Be Arbitration. So Arbitration Is
One Way of Resolving Disagreements under Adr. Instead of Using
Arbitration, We Might Well Choose Mediation. Mediation Is Somewhat
Similar But Yet Different than Arbitration. And Then Some Places We
Actually Combine the Two and We Have Arb‑med, an Arbitration‑mediation
Combination. So It\'s a Series of Administrative Kinds of Procedures
That Can Be Used in Advance of Going Through the Complicated Formal,
Legal Processes. There Is a Basic Requirement in The Government That You
Try to Negotiate Settlements Whenever You Can. In Order to Use Adr,
There Are Some Things You Really Need. First of All, You Have to Have An
Issue in Controversy. Now, I Guess What this Means Is If You Don\'t Have
a Disagreement With Somebody, Go out and Create One. Then Can You Use
Adr. No, That\'s Not Really What it Means. You Know, Try to Eliminate
Them. But in Order to Use It, You Have To Have a Disagreement. The Two
of You See Something Differently. First Step Is an Issue in Controversy.
In Addition to it Being in Controversy, You Know, You Can\'t Always
Impose Your Will on the Contractor. You Can Impose Your Will like in
Changes If It\'s Within the Scope. You Could Impose Your Will under The
Disputes Clause in Terms of Your Settlement Decision, but If You Want to
Use Adr, it Takes Both Parties That Are Voluntarily and Willing to Elect
Participation in this Adr Process. So That\'s One of the First Steps.
You Have to Be Willing to Do It. So If We Have an Issue in Dispute and
We Have Parties That Are Willing, Then Maybe We Can Take the next Step
and We Start Lookinging at What Are the Procedures That We Might Be Able
To Use to Try to Resolve These. So We Have to Agree upon Procedures,
Whether That Means Agree upon \"I\'ll Only Do Mediation, I Don\'t like
Arbitration Because Arbitration Imposes a Settlement on Me. Mediation
Allows Me Maybe to Help Form a Solution, Formulate A Solution.\" So a
Mediator Is Different than An Arbitrator. So Somehow There Has to Be an
Agreement on the Procedures. Then, Secondly, the People That Are at the
Bargaining Table Have To Have the Authority to Resolve. So If Those Two
Things Aren\'t Present, Then Adr Doesn\'t Work Very Well. So If You Can
Meet the Criteria And You Really Do Have an Issue In Dispute and You\'re
Willing to Sit down and Negotiate with the Other Party, the Procedures
That You Want to Use, and You Can Go Through this Process, Then it May
Be a Simpler Way than the Normal Litigation Process. The F.a.r., Federal
Acquisition Regulations, Gives Some Guidance For Contracting Officers,
and So There\'s a Lot of Information That the ‑‑ We\'re Dependent upon
From a COR in Order to Work Through this Adr Process. Now, in Terms of
Problem Resolution, the Last Ingredient As Part of this Adr Is That
There Is a Neutral Kind of a Person, and They\'re Used to Facilitate the
Resolution. Again, That Could Be the Mediator. It Could Be the
Arbitrator. But Somehow We Have Someone Come In to Help the Parties Try
and Reach Agreement. If We Went Back to Look at What The Basic Federal
Policy Is and I Think It\'s in Part 33 ‑‑ I\'m Hesitant Now of Citing
the Section, but I Know It\'s in Part 33, Because That\'s Where Disputes
Are Found, but it Says Something Like, It\'s the Policy Of the
Government to Attempt to Resolve All Disagreements at the Local Level
Through Negotiation Without Litigation. That Means Try and Work Together
To Solve Your Problem. What Today Appears to Be an Expensive Solution
Might, in Fact, Not Be So Expensive after We\'ve Gone Through Long,
Drawn‑out Costly Litigation. So That\'s Part of What We\'re Looking at
Here, What\'s a Fair And Reasonable Settlement. What Makes Sense? Can We
Use Adr? And If We Can, Then It\'s a Tool, Another New Tool, Right. This
Is the Tool on the Far End, Problem Resolution, but it Can Be Done. I
Guess Your Best Advice I Could Give to You, Though,, Is You Know, Let\'s
Prevent the Problems Rather than Becoming Experts in How to Solve Them.
Let\'s Do Problem Prevention. So Be out in Front of Your Job, Stay on
Top of It, Have Good Human Relation Skills, Good Communication Skills,
Try to Work with Your Contractor, Confront the Issues That Come up With
You on a Day to Day Kind of Basis, Try to Get Those Things Solved, Put
Them Behind You, Keep the Problems off the Job Site. I Mean, If You Got
Problems, Leave it with the Contractor That Went Duck Hunting. Leave it
with the Contracting Officer That\'s Sitting in Their Office Dealing
with Administrative Things. But Don\'t Interrupt the Progress Of the
Work on the Job with All The Disagreements. Figure out How to Work
Together On the Job and Solve the Problems Outside of That. So with
That, Peggy, I Just Am About Plum Worn Out.

Dabb: Well, If You ‑‑ as You Have Just Seen, Adr Is Something That Can
Be Used to Resolve Contract Disputes Saving Time And Money. Before Going
to Your Last Questions and Comments, Dave, I Have to Ask You to Do This,
Please, to Take a Few Minutes to Summarize What Was Covered Today.

Williams: Ok. So, You Know, Really, I Would Like to Say Thanks for All
the Faxes and All the Questions and Comments That Came In, Because That
Really Helped to Make it Better. It Makes it Much More Realistic. Some
of Us Try to Think of Those Things or We Picked Them up in Other
Classes, but Your Real‑life Questions Are Appreciated. As We Started
Today, Yesterday Was like Some New Tools and New Kinds of Rules. We
Tried to Apply Those in Contract Administration. It\'s Easier Today to
Kind of Relax and Be Comfortable, Because this Is the Kind of Stuff
That\'s Been Around for a Long, Long Time, Things like Authority and We
Have a Lot of Cases and a Lot of Examples to Follow. So Know Your
Authority and Stay Within Your Authority. Have Meaningful, Productive,
Prework and Other Meetings with Your Contractors. Do a Good Job of
Documenting. If You Need to Make Changes, Go Through the Right Steps and
the Process. Make Them Properly. Price Them Out. Negotiate Them Fairly
and Get on With the Job. To the Extent That You Have Inspection‑related
Problems, Know That You Have the Right to Inspect, Know That You Can
Reject Work, Know That You Can Require Correction of Work, Know What
Your Rights Are and Know What the Other Part\'s Responsibilities ‑‑
Party\'s Responsibilities Are. If You Can\'t Work it Through That Way,
Call Outs to Help You. And If Somehow Using the Best Skills That You
Have You Still Can\'t Quite Get the Job Done, Remember, There Are Some
Procedures Which Can Be Utilize To Do Solve Those Areas That You Can\'t
Reach Agreement On. Involve Your Contracting Officer, Involve the Team
Members, and Involve Those People That Are There to Help You Get the Job
Done. Invest Your Time in Performance. Don\'t Worry about Litigation
Later On. So with That, Good Luck to All Of You.

Dabb: What Addition ‑‑ One Additional Thing, Dave, to What We\'ve Talked
about So Far Today ‑‑ Actually I Think We Talked About it a Little Bit
Yesterday And We Had Some More Conversation Today, Too. When We\'re
Talking about Our Documentation, We May Have Focused More on Documenting
When There\'s a Potential for a Court Claim or a Negative Happening or
Something and I Think What We Probably Need to Do Is Not Only Document
for Those Kind of Things, but Plain, Flat, Good Old‑fashioned
Documentation for Just about Everything We Do. We Document the Progress.
We Talked about That a Little Bit in the Performance‑based Service
Contracts. We Talked about it in the past Performance. We Can Talk about
the Results That We\'re Getting, Which Is Part of Your Quality Assurance
Plans. We Document Pretty Much about Everything We Do Anymore These
Days. I Don\'t Know If Everybody\'s Memory Is as Good or Bad as Mind. I
Can\'t Remember. Anyway, I Just Wanted to Make That Point, That We Do
Need to Document Pretty Much Everything, Not Just the Things That Have
Potential to Go Awry.

Lewis: Good Point.

Dabb: Well, Here\'s Your Last Chance, Guys. Well, and Girls. Do You Need
Clarification? Do You Need Further Explanation? The Test Is Coming. The
Test Is Coming. Call or Fax Now. Ok? We Do Have Faxes. This Is Exciting.
It\'s Having to Do with the Adr Process. Is the Adr Process Set up by
the Agency, BLM or by the Solicitor?

Williams: Within F.a.r., the Federal Acquisition Regulations, It
Provides for Agencies to Develop Their Own Set of Rules And Procedures
for Adr. Certainly When You Get into Those Kinds of Situations, You Want
to Work Clearly with the Counsel. But the Other Point to Keep in Mind,
this Whole Area of Government Contracts, Is That The Contracting Officer
Is the One That Has the Authority to Enter Into, Administer, Terminate
and Make Related Findings and Determinations. They Have the Right to
Make Good Decisions and Bad Decisions. They Have the Right to Reach
Agreements, and Those Agreements Can\'t Be Imposed on Them. So People
Encourage Them Like, Solicitors and Others, They Say, Work Through It,
Find a Solution. So Adr Is There, but It\'s Fairly New. Rules Are Being
Developed. So Look to Your Own Internal Agencies Handbook Procedures,
Departmental Guidelines, and ‑‑

Lewis: Well, Within BLM Right Now We Have, I Think, We May Have
Mentioned It, We Have a Couple of Folks That Work ‑‑ Are Working on the
Adr Process. We Have a Natural Resources Representative, John Shumaker,
Out of the Denver Office and Then John Sherman Working on Procedures to
Be Used in Our Contracts. So We\'re Currently Working on Those.

Dabb: Here Is Another Fax. This One Is from Oregon. I Understand That
There Are Three Types of Performance Evaluations, Preaward Evaluation
Factors, Inspection Evaluations During Contract Evaluation Factors, and
Post Award Evaluations. When You Spoke on Wednesday About Performance
Evaluation, I Don\'t Think You Clearly Differentiated among the Three.
To Which of These Three Did You Refer to in Discussion of Add Minute
Stray Administration Business like Aspects, Meeting Schedules,
Reasonable and Cooperative, Performance Elements, and the Rating Guide.
That\'s a Little Long. Maybe You Need to Refer a Little To That.

Williams: the First Thing and I Did Get a Chance to Look at This a
Little Bit Beforehand, But the First Thing, Is You Know, Yesterday Was a
Thousand Years Ago. That\'s the Way We Feel. But ‑‑ Maybe We Didn\'t
Make it Clear. But, Really, from the 1, 2, 3 Points, Let Me Try to
Distinguish Three Different Things Happening. First of All, Before a
Contract Is Award to Do Someone, We Want To Make Sure That They
Understand What We Want Done. We Evaluate Their Proposal. So We\'re
Making an Assessment of Their Capability to Perform. We\'re Making an
Assessment of Their past Experience. And All Is That to Make That
Initial Determination of If They Are a Responsible Business Firm. They
Meet the Terms of the Solicitation, and They Are Eligible for the Award.
So That\'s One Sense of Appraisal. We Are Appraising the Responsiveness
to the Solicitation and You ‑‑ the Second One Deals with Appraisal
During Performance under in the Spec Shun Clause. When Contractors Are
Performing Work, You Are out There Assessing, Evaluating, Documenting
the Work That Goes On. So That Is, Again, an Assessment. That\'s an
Assessment of the Quality of Work as it Takes Place. Then the Third One
That I Was Kind of Relating To, Because That\'s the One That\'s Used as
The Input for Future Selection, And That\'s the past Performance Aspect
and That\'s after the Contract Is Now over and We Look Back at Our
History, and Our History Dealt with Quality and How They Dealt with
Defects and Deficiencies and Our History Dealt with the Timeliness of
Performance and Our History Dealt with Did They Operate in a
Business‑like Manner? Did They Make Those Submittals Timely? Did They
Advise Us Who the Subcontractors Were? Did They Pay Their Employees?
Those Are the Business‑like Things Related to this Contract That We\'re
Evaluating. So the Four Things That Were in That Performance Evaluation
Factor Were Things under this Contract and Then That Becomes The Basis,
Gets Put in the ‑‑ in That Important File Cabinet, Used for Future
Evaluation of Past Performance. So There Really Are Three, but They Are
for Three Totally Different Things. I Hope That Clarifies it Some.

Dabb: All Throughout the Last Two Days We Have Been Throwing Web Sites
to You like Mad. And I\'m Sure That Most of You Are Probably, like Me,
Have Started to Write Them down and We Just Pretty Much Moved Too Fast
for You So You Couldn\'t Complete Your Note‑taking. So What We\'re Going
to Do Right Now Is Take a Couple of Minutes And We\'re Going to Allow
You the Time to Go Ahead and See What All the Web Sites That We\'ve Been
Talking about Are. We Hope We Were Able to Clarify A Lot of What Web
Sites Go to What. So Take a Couple of Minutes Now And Then Can You Do a
Better Job Of Your Note‑taking.

Dabb: We Have Some More Faxes We\'d like to Address. Are All Contract
Forms on the Computer or Web?

Lewis: Well, with this Electronic Era, I Think Most Everything Has Been
Recreated If It Wasn\'t Already There. I Think Gsa Has a Site Where They
Have Electronic Copies of All the Standard Forms and Optional Forms. And
with I.d.e.a.s. Coming, of Course, All of Our Forms We Will Be Using
Through the Electronic Commerce and Contracting, All of Those Will Be
Electronic. And Individual Offices Have Put Forms in Electronic for
Matt. So If You\'re Looking for One, Send Us Another Question and We\'ll
Direct You the Right Way. Judged Thank You, Julie. Here\'s a Question.
This Is from Denver. In the Past, My Office Has Used Iq Contracts for
Procuring Ae Services. For Some Reason Our Solicitor Said These Could
Not Be Limited Geographically. From Yesterday\'s Session it Seems Other
Agencies Limit Them Geographically. I Don\'t Know What the Answer Is.

Lewis: I Don\'t Know of Any Restriction That Limits ‑‑

Williams: Let Me Just Touch On an Example or Two That Might Fit. Maybe
Clarifying a Little Bit, Too, of Yesterday and the Id/iq And We Get Used
to Saying Those Terms, Id/iq, and Yet There Really Are Three Distinct
Kinds Of Contracts There and What We Had in Terms of the Course Manual
Is Very Clear about What It Is in F.a.r. in Terms of Title. Those Are
Requirements, and They\'re Definite Quantity and Indefinite Quantity.
And Those Are the Three. I Think the Title of That Visual Has Probably
‑‑ Is Probably Incorrect. It Says Id/iq. Sometimes We Kind of Mix Those
Things Up. But as Far as I Know, Unless You Are Unnecessarily
Restricting Competition, and Let Me Tell You An Example of an Id/iq
That\'s Going on Right Now, Take Just a Few Minutes, but Gas Recently
Put out a Solicitation for Firms To Do Trainingment. Federal Acquisition
Institute Courses. What They Started out Saying Is They Would Make up to
Five Awards in Certain Geographical Areas and So There\'s No Reason Why
You Could Not Limit Contractorsors to Certain Geographical Areas. People
Have the Opportunity to Compete. So If There\'s Legitimate Reason, You
Can Do That. The Other Thing to Maybe Keep in Mind on Whether It\'s
Id/iq Types Of Contracts or Anything Else, The First Thing That Happens
in Acquisition Is We Publicize Locally and Sometimes to the World What
We\'re Going to Do. And We Write What the Rules Are. And We Tell Them
What the Restrictions Are, If It\'s Geographical We Tell Them Whether or
Not Individual Orders Will Be Placed Using Competition, If We\'re Using
Other than Price in the Order Placement, That\'s Spelled Out. So, in
Fact, What We Do for Each Solicitation, We Write the Rules In Advance.
And If Somebody Doesn\'t like That, If They Believe It\'s Restrictive
Because We Are Limiting it to a Single Contractor or Excluding Somebody
Geographically, Then the Process Calls for Them to File a Protest, and
So I Don\'t Know of A Limitation Geographically. Certainly Firms Have
the Right To Protect, but They Have to Have a Legitimate Basis for That,
and Just like You Have a Legit Mitt Basis to Determine Your Needs.

Dabb: Ok. I Have ‑‑ It\'s More of a Comment On this One, and It\'s ‑‑ I
Think It\'s More Geared Towards a Concern That Some of the People Out
There Are Having. Any Time We Go Through New Procedures and Types, the
Stop And Go over Not Knowing the Procedures and Formats and Changes and
What We Are Told We Need to Do Get Real Frustrating At the Field Level.
Going Through Projects on the Ground with New Ground Rules Can Be a Very
Frustrating Experience For Us and the Contractor. Getting Good
Performance Standards Defined That Are Reasonably Measurable May Be a
Challenge Also. It\'s More of Just a Sharing That, You Know, What We\'re
All Going Through the Exact Same Thing. That\'s One Reason Why We
Introduced this New Rules New Tools Aspect in this Course That We\'ve
Been Giving You over the Last Two Days. So Don\'t Feel like You\'re
Alone Out There. I Think That Goes Right Back to Working with the Team,
Communication and All of Us Are Learning Exactly the Same as What You
Are.

Williams: Yes, It\'s Not Always Easy. And Maybe the Success Is the Fun
Part of That That I Mentioned, Is That Worrying about What Do You and
How Do You Define Fun? Maybe the Fun Is the Challenge Of Figuring out
How to Make it Work and What You\'re Doing, You May Think It\'s
Difficult and Nobody Else Is Confronting That Same Problem, But, You
Know, If You Pick up the Phone and Call Somebody Else, I Bet You\'ll
Find Two Things, Somebody Willing to Help You If You\'ll Ask for Help
And Sometimes People Are Already Doing Something like That That You Can
Learn from and Can You Kind of Shorten down the Learning Curve. So
Newness Is Frustrating. You Make Mistakes When You\'re Doing Things and
That\'s Just the Way Life Is.

Dabb: We Have One Final Fax Here, and It\'s More of a Sharing Of a
Success Story, or of Something That Works Real Positive in One of the
Offices Out in Utah. It\'s Pretty Long So I\'ll Try to Summarize it the
Best I Can. It\'s Related to Bpas and Their Use And, Remember, We Did
Chat a Little Bit about How We Are Trying to Phase out Bpas and Trying
to Go More with the Id/iq Concept of the Procurement Instruments. This
Particular Subject Is Having to Do with Using Bpas to Acquire
Professional Real Estate Appraisal Services, and Apparently the Amount
of Paper Work Has Been Reduced for the Prospective Contractors Because
Of How the Purchasing Arrangement Has Been Set Up. They Are Small Local
Appraisal Companies Who Have Not Previously Done Work for BLM and So
They Have Made Sure the Contractors Are Well Qualified And Experienced,
and They Do Do Some Competitive Processes While They\'re Making All
Their Assignments. They Have Negotiated Fees below The Low Bid When
Multiple Assignments Have Been Made. We Also Consider past Performance,
Responsiveness to Inquiries, the Ability to Successfully Communicate
with Property Owners and Others Who Rely on Their Appraisal and
Compliance with Documentation Standards. For the Most Part the
Contractors Seemed to like this Process. They Provide Good Quality
Service, Are Responsive to Requests and Have Completed Assignments
Within Accepted Time Frames. The Whole Process Has Been Very, Very
Successful in Acquiring the Lands, in Part to the Use of the Local
Appraisers Who Are Trusted By the Property Owners. None of the
Contractors Take the Purchase Cards, and Some of Them Do Have Electronic
Payment Capabilities, And, Remember, We Chatted a Little Bit about the
Prompt Pay New Requirements for All of the Electronic Payments. But
Bottom Line This, Individual Believes this Is a Much Better Process than
the Id/iq by Use of The Bpa.

Williams: the Idea Is, I Guess, If It\'s Legal and it Works for You,
Hey, Do It. It\'s Not a Problem. Nobody\'s Telling You What You Have to
Do. The Question I Would Ask, Though, If You\'re Doing a Bpa For like
Appraisal, What Happens If They Fail to Perform? Do You Have Any Rights?
What Inspection Clause Do You Have? So Maybe Even Going One Step
Further, Maybe We Ought to Say, That Sounds like it Was Probably A
Commercial Item Acquisition Anyway and We Would Have the Abbreviated
F.a.r. Clauses Commercial Item. I Want You to Go Away Realizing As
We\'ve Touched Before There Are a Ton of Tools out There Available and
So We\'re Not Trying to Be Directive in Terms Of What Is the Right Tool.
What\'s Right in One Location Is Not Necessarily Right Somewhere Else.
So If It\'s Working for You, Terrific! If It\'s Not, Try Something New.

Dabb: Ok. Thank You So Much Dave Williams And Julie Lewis. Do You Have
Anything Else You Might Want to Add Just ‑‑

Lewis: Well, this Was a Great, Great Training. You Know, this Is the
First That I\'ve Been Involved with the Satellite Training. Obviously
It\'s a Lot Different. You Don\'t Get to Look at Your Audience, but it
Was Great Being Here and I Hope Everyone Enjoyed It. Thank You.

Dabb: I Can See Them ‑‑ No! Well, Before We Sign Off, I Have A Few
Housekeeping Items to Mention. Our Fax and Phone Lines Will Be Staffed
for 30 Minutes after the Show in Case You Have Any Additional Questions
or Concerns. In Order to Be Officially Recertified as a COR, Sorry,
Folks, but You Have to Take a Test, and You Have to Pass It, And You
Have to Submit it to Npi. You Will Find the Test on the Internet at
www‑ntc‑blm.gov/ce‑062.html. If You Have Any Questions about The Test,
Please, Please, Please Contact Either Linda Johnson at The National
Training Center or Dave Williams at the Northwest Procurement Institute.
Also, We Want to Have Your Comments and Feedback about the Training.
Please Complete the Evaluation Form and Send it to Npi along With Your
Completed Test. Your Certificate Will Be Mailed To You. Again, Everyone,
Please Sign Today\'s Attendance Roster and Fax it to NTC Immediately
after The Broadcast. Please Use the Number Provided At the Bottom of the
Roster or Fax it to Area Code 602‑906‑5701. Thank You Again, Dave, and
Thank You, Julie, for Telling Us about New Tools and New Rules and
Thanks to All the Specialists Who Called in and Participated During the
Show. We Could Not Have Done this Without You, the Audience. Thank You
for All Your Calls and Faxes. We Hope this Training Has Met Your Needs
and Provided with You Some Good Information. Good Luck on Your
Certification Tests. So Long from Phoenix.

Announcer: to Help Your Office Participate in Future Telecasts, See the
BLM Satellite Downlink Guide and Visit the NTC Homepage on the World
Wide Web. NTC\'s Internet Address Is www.ntc.blm.gov. Transcripts of
this Program and Other NTC Broadcasts Are Available on the Homepage. For
More Information on Upcoming Distance Learning Events as Well As
Traditional Courses, Call the Training Center at 602‑906‑5500. Or Visit
the Home Page. This Broadcast Has Been a Production of the BLM National
Training Center.