Assignment 4 Contract Change Evaluation 11 28 14
ASSIGNEMENT 4: CONTRACT CHANGE EVALUATION
LEG505 – Government Contract Law December 6, 2014
The contract is for commercial cleaning and the winner of the contract is Sparkle and Shine Cleaning Services. A condition of the contract consists of completing up to 30% of the contract within 45 days of the contract effective date. Unfortunately, Sparkle and Shine may need to solicit additional laborers due to 45 days not being long enough. The cleaning services are needed much sooner than that. The Department of Veterans Affairs would like to change the timeframe from 45 to 21 days. It appears that the contract for Sparkle and Shine may not be capable of completing 30% of the contract requirements within such a short time frame. Due to the drastic change, Sparkle and Shine is disputing the change.
1. Select the appropriate administrative process to effect the change and explain your selection in the context of its appropriateness for the situation.
While the change to the contract is unexpected, it does not change the contract to where the contractor has “to perform duties materially different from those originally bargained for” (O’Connor, 2007). Since the contract is not materially different, the contract needs not to be reopened for competition and a change order needs to be issued.
The change order will enforce the administrative process. The appropriate administrative process to effect the change would be a bilateral modification. A bilateral modification requires the government and the contractor to sign the change order. A bilateral modification is used to “[m]ake negotiated equitable adjustments resulting from the issuance of a change order” (Federal Acquisition Regulation, 2014). With such a severe change, both the government and the contractor would have to agree to the change and where applicable equitable adjustments would be required.
2. Select the administrative and judicial process that will bring the dispute to a resolution and
LEG505 – Government Contract Law December 6, 2014
The contract is for commercial cleaning and the winner of the contract is Sparkle and Shine Cleaning Services. A condition of the contract consists of completing up to 30% of the contract within 45 days of the contract effective date. Unfortunately, Sparkle and Shine may need to solicit additional laborers due to 45 days not being long enough. The cleaning services are needed much sooner than that. The Department of Veterans Affairs would like to change the timeframe from 45 to 21 days. It appears that the contract for Sparkle and Shine may not be capable of completing 30% of the contract requirements within such a short time frame. Due to the drastic change, Sparkle and Shine is disputing the change.
1. Select the appropriate administrative process to effect the change and explain your selection in the context of its appropriateness for the situation.
While the change to the contract is unexpected, it does not change the contract to where the contractor has “to perform duties materially different from those originally bargained for” (O’Connor, 2007). Since the contract is not materially different, the contract needs not to be reopened for competition and a change order needs to be issued.
The change order will enforce the administrative process. The appropriate administrative process to effect the change would be a bilateral modification. A bilateral modification requires the government and the contractor to sign the change order. A bilateral modification is used to “[m]ake negotiated equitable adjustments resulting from the issuance of a change order” (Federal Acquisition Regulation, 2014). With such a severe change, both the government and the contractor would have to agree to the change and where applicable equitable adjustments would be required.
2. Select the administrative and judicial process that will bring the dispute to a resolution and