If a public agency receives federal funding for any project, one of the requirements is that the agency check to ensures that the selected vendor, contractor, or consultant is not debarred or suspended from doing business with the federal government.It is easy to check the federal debarment status of a company. Visit http://www.epls.gov.
Make sure you print out a copy of the web page showing that the company is not debarred and keep it in your contracting file for when you are audited.The City of Yakima (Washington) was recently audited by the Washington State Auditor's Office who issued a finding for Yakima's failure to check the debarment status of a number of firms. To read the audit finding, click here.Pacific County (Washington) also faced a similar audit finding from the Washington State Auditor's Office. Click here to read the audit.Make sure your agency has a clear procedure for ensuring that the status of vendors, contractors, and consultants on federally funded projects is checked before entering into a contract with them.
Training: The Fundamentals of Construction Contracts: Understanding the Issues
When: December 11, 2009 Where: Spokane, Washington
Cost: $359 For more information and to register, click here. Sponsored by: Lorman Education Services
Faculty: - James Majeskey
- Jason T. Piskel
- Tyan Yahne
Wishing you and your families and wonderful day of Thanksgiving! May it be a time to remember and reflect on the many things we have to be thankful for.On October 3, 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued a Thanksgiving proclamation - the first one in an unbroken string of presidential proclamations to designate the last Thursday in November as a national day of Thanksgiving.The following is the text of Lincoln's 1863 Thanksgiving proclamation:BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA – A PROCLAMATIONThe year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore if, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purpose, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.Done at the city of Washington, this 3d day of October A.D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Most federally funded public works projects require the payment of federal prevailing wages and compliance with the Davis-Bacon Act (and related acts). Federal prevailing wage provisions require the public agency to conduct interviews on the construction site with workers to inquire about how much they are being paid, to observe whether they are working within the classification they are being paid for, and to ask whether they are receiving overtime pay, where required.
The public agency then has the obligation to take the information from the employee interviews and compare it with the information reported by the contractor or subcontractor on their weekly certified payrolls. These payroll reports must be submitted to the public agency who is responsible for reviewing the payrolls to determine if the workers were paid appropriately. Discrepancies between the interviews and payrolls should be investigated further by the public agency. A recent audit finding by the Washington State Auditor's Office found that King County failed to check the payroll reports even when employee interviews revealed that four subcontractor employees were potentially underpaid the prevailing wages due to them.
The audit also found that King County "did not have a process to determine whether the state of Washington prevailing wage rates or the federal Davis-Bacon Act wage rates were higher; therefore, the County was not able to ensure the contractor complied with the state law that stipulates the higher of the two wages must be paid to the workers."Click here and go to page 24 of the report to read the finding for this item.
The Washington State Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee (JLARC) issued a 73 page report in late September 2009 publishing their findings on the accuracy of cost estimates for capital projects for ten state agencies. The study looked at projects over $5 million. The report concluded that "a large majority of capital project cost estimates reviewed meet professional expectations for accuracy," and that the cost estimating practices used by the agencies was consistent with professional standards.
To read the report, click here.
The Washington State Department of General Administration is recruiting for a Contracts Specialist 3 position.The salary range from $4,033 to $5,289 per month.Filing closes on Friday, December 4, 2009For more information and to apply, visit GA's website by clicking here.
Under Washington State's General Contractor/Construction Manager (GC/CM) project delivery method (known in other places as CM at Risk), the public agency initially enters into a pre-construction services contract with the selected contractor. See chapter 39.10 RCW.The scope of work for this pre-construction services agreement typically covers tasks such as cost estimating, constructability reviews, and value engineering. Often, the contractor will be requested to perform limited physical or exploratory work. While a pre-construction services contract is normally viewed as a consultant agreement, to the extent the contractor is performing physical work, that work may be subject to prevailing wage requirements. Thus, it is important for pre-construction services contracts to include language requiring the payment of prevailing wages when applicable. The following prevailing wage language may serve as a guide for public agencies in developing and negotiating a pre-construction services contract as part of a GC/CM project:"To the extent that any of the work in this Pre-construction Services Contract is subject to the payment of prevailing wages, the Contractor shall comply with all applicable provisions of Chapter 39.12 of the Revised Code of Washington concerning prevailing wages, shall provide the Owner with all documents required therein, and shall pay not less than the prevailing rate of wage to such laborers, workers, or mechanics in each trade or occupation required for the work whether performed by the Contractor, subcontractor, or other person doing or contracting to do the whole or any part of the work subject to prevailing wages and contemplate by this Contract. The execution date of this Contract shall be the effective date for any prevailing wages required to be paid under this Contract. In any case, the Contractor shall not pay any person described herein less than the hourly minimum rate of wage."
A copy of the prevailing wages applicable as of the execution date of the pre-construction services contract must also be attached as part of the contract. If the project contains any federal funds, the prevailing wage language will need to be adjusted appropriately.
If a public agency receives federal funding for any project, one of the requirements is that the agency check to ensures that the selected vendor, contractor, or consultant is not debarred or suspended from doing business with the federal government.
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