A contractor’s performance of extra work outside the scope of the contract may go uncompensated if a contractor does not receive appropriate authorization in accordance with the contractual terms.

A Court of Federal Claims decision reinforced that a contractor should only perform work required under the terms of the federal contract or directed by an authorized government agent in accordance with the contractual terms. And importantly, a Contracting Officer’s Representative isn’t always authorized to order additional work–even if that person acts as though he or she has such authority.

The Court’s decision in Baistar Mechanical, Inc., v. United States, No. 15-1473C (2016) involved a ground maintenance and snow removal services contract for the Armed Forces Retirement Home’s property in Washington, D.C., which included 270-acre property providing residence to several hundred retired military members. Baistar successfully bid on and was awarded the contract, which was executed in December 2011. The contract contemplated a five-year period of performance beginning on December 16, 2011.

Baistar alleged that, while it was working on the site, two Contracting Officer’s Representatives requested Baistar’s assistance with the planning and design of the current boiler plant and future plants at the Retirement Home.  Baistar provided the assistance, but was not selected as the contractor for the plant projects. (Although the issue wasn’t raised in the Court’s decision, it’s not entirely clear Baistar would have been eligible for those projects: its role in the planning and design sounds an awful lot like a “biased ground rules” organizational conflict of interest under FAR 9.505-2). Baistar wasn’t paid for its planning and design assistance.

Baistar also alleged that, throughout the period of performance, Baistar performed various other services at the behest of CORs, but wasn’t paid for those services. For example, Baistar contended that the CORs directed Baistar to perform various snow and ice removal services outside the contract.

In July 2015, the government terminated Baistar for default. Baistar then filed a series of claims seeking payment for the extra work Baister believed that it had been asked to perform. After the government denied Baistar’s claims, Baistar filed an appeal with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

The government moved to dismiss Baistar’s allegations related to work allegedly ordered by the CORs. The government argued that, under the terms of the contract, the CORs lacked authority to order additional work.

Specifically, the contract provided:

Any additional services or a change to work specified which may be performed by the contractor, either at its own volition or at the request of an individual other than a duly appointed [contracting officer], except as may be explicitly authorized in the contract, will be done at the financial risk of the contractor. Only a duly appointed [contracting officer] is authorized to bind the [g]overnment to a change in the specifications, terms, or conditions of this contract.

The contract added that the contracting officer’s representatives did “not have authority to issue technical direction that…[c]hanges any of the terms, conditions, or specification(s)/work statement of the contract.” (incorporating and quoting DFARS §1052.201-70(c)).

The Court of Federal Claims wrote that “a government agent can bind the government if the agent possesses express or implied actual authority.” No implied authority will exist “when the action taken by the government agent contravenes the explicit terms of the governing contract.” Further, when a contractor works with or enters into an agreement with a government agent, the contractor is responsible for determining whether that agent can effectively bind the government.”

In this case, “[t]he express provisions of the ground maintenance contract grant exclusive authority to the contracting officer, not the representatives, to make any changes regarding scope of worth.” The Court continued:

[T]he . . . contracting officer may have delegated management authority to its representatives, but that delegation was limited by the contract. The contract’s explicit terms gave the contracting officer exclusive authority to order out-of-scope work, and barred the representatives from implied authority to do the same. The fact that the representatives allegedly acted as if they had authority, or even believed they had authority, is insufficient.

The Court granted the government’s motion to dismiss several of Baistar’s causes of action.

When contractors are engaged in day-to-day performance of a government contractor, they often work closely with CORs, technical representatives, contracting specialists, and other agency officials who don’t hold the title “contracting officer.” In fact, it’s not uncommon for the contractor to have very little contact with the contracting officer, which apparently was the case for Baistar.

But even when the contracting officer isn’t involved in the day-to-day work, and even when a COR or other representative acts as though he or she has the authority to order new work or changed work, a contractor must tread carefully. As the Baistar case demonstrates, the government ordinarily isn’t liable for extra work or changed work performed at the behest of government officials who lack appropriate authority–and when it comes to who possesses appropriate authority, the terms of the contract govern.

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