A construction contractor was awarded a multi-million dollar contract to complete a project on a U.S. military base and ultimately encountered a multitude of problems throughout the course of the job. The inexperience of the assigned Contracting Officer (CO) resulted in mismanagement of the project and continuously fostered compounding delays for the contractor.
Resultantly, defective and deficient specifications, coupled with unresponsiveness to submitted Requests for Equitable Adjustment (REAs) composed of disruption, ripple effect, and inaccurate assignment of blame for delays ultimately led to a stop-work order issued by the Government and subsequent threats of Liquidated Damages.
Of note, both before and after the issuance of the stop-work order, practically no effort was made by the Government to engage in negotiation or problem mitigation, which is explicitly required of Contracting Officers. The contractor had tried repeatedly to get the CO to sit down with them and discuss the issues, but to no avail.
With limited options remaining, the contractor contacted Excell Consulting.
With Excell engaged, and following a review of relevant documentation by the professional consultants at Excell, a SINGLE LETTER was drafted on behalf of the client and sent to the CO addressing all the issues experienced to date. Upon receipt of the letter, a more experienced regional CO was brought in to meet with the client alongside the original CO and their team. All issues were discussed and resolved at this two and a half hour meeting to the immense satisfaction of the client. Both contracting officers acquiesced to the contractor’s position and the stop-work order was immediately lifted. The contractor went back to work, the project that had once seemed destined for failure was now back on track, and the REAs are currently in negotiation to the satisfaction of all parties.
Moral of the story: An inexperienced Government construction team can be a daunting hurdle for a contractor to overcome. However, the professional consultants at Excell Consulting have decades of combined experience dealing with these individuals. A single call to Excell can be all that it takes to get your issues resolved, your employees back to work, and your project back on track with your financial position intact!
And by the way, consultation calls are always FREE!