Training by third party for contracted employee

[DEEFARRD]

Good morning, I'm in a situation where I need a contracted employee to attend a required training that will be taught by a third party contractor.

Background: We awarded a service contract for medical professionals that is not under any CLASS/MASS contract. Originally, the contract did not require the contracted employees to be trained to use a specialized medical equipment but recently, the hospital received a new state-of-the-art machine which requires specific training for this item from the manufacturer (the third party). Unfortunately, we do not have any military or federal employee to fill this 'skilled' position thus a contracted employee is the only person who has the original credentials to obtain this training.

We plan on creating a purchase order against the manufacturer directly to train our contracted employee but our incumbent contractor feels that this is not legal. I asked our contractor to cite what exactly this would be in violation of but have not received an answer. I am concerned as this training is not originally in the PWS thus possibly not enforceable but this training is required for the employee to do their main job.

Question: Can we create a purchase order directly to the manufacturer to train our contracted employee?

The other option was to modify the contract and PWS to include the training and have our contractor negotiate with the manufacturer but we perceive our contractor trying to add G&A to this as well and the cost of the training may not be as low as we are receiving due to the Government discount for directly placing a PO against the manufacturer.

Also, we are paying for their travel, lodging, etc according to the Joint Travel Regulations. We cannot tell the contracted employee to stay at whichever hotel or what flight to take thus we leave it up to our contractor to provide us with a quote on the travel. The contractor wants to add G&A on top of the JTR rate which I do not believe is acceptable.

Question: Can the contractor add G&A on top?

I found an article with the similar situation but it does not say how they procured the training

http://www.articlesb...overnment-contractor-training-591237.html

[leo1102]

Is the contract FFP or Cost-Reimbursement?

Work with your Contractor and do a bi-lateral modification to the contract. If the services required to be performed under the contract require the contracted employee to obtain certain training or maintain certain credentials, then that is the responsibility of the Contractor. Since this training was unanticipated at the start of this contract and since it is within-scope, then modify the PWS, and negotiate a price instructing the Contractor not to exceed the JTR reimbursement rates.

The Contractor is well within his right to negotiate G&A and profit on costs incurred. That is why the Government should want to negotiate the cost.

[Don Mansfield]

Question: Can we create a purchase order directly to the manufacturer to train our contracted employee?

I don't know of anything that would prohibit it.

Also, we are paying for their travel, lodging, etc according to the Joint Travel Regulations. We cannot tell the contracted employee to stay at whichever hotel or what flight to take thus we leave it up to our contractor to provide us with a quote on the travel. The contractor wants to add G&A on top of the JTR rate which I do not believe is acceptable.

Question: Can the contractor add G&A on top?

If the contractor's standard practice is to allocate G&A to its travel costs, why shouldn't they do so in this case?

[DEEFARRD]

Is the contract FFP or Cost-Reimbursement?

Work with your Contractor and do a bi-lateral modification to the contract. If the services required to be performed under the contract require the contracted employee to obtain certain training or maintain certain credentials, then that is the responsibility of the Contractor. Since this training was unanticipated at the start of this contract and since it is within-scope, then modify the PWS, and negotiate a price instructing the Contractor not to exceed the JTR reimbursement rates.

The Contractor is well within his right to negotiate G&A and profit on costs incurred. That is why the Government should want to negotiate the cost.

Leo1102, the contract is FFP. My KO wants me to place a PO against the manufacturer and not my KTR.

The current contract is expiring shortly and the KTR is not performing to standards. It does bring up a challenge as we are training a KTR employee that could jump ship anytime but the standard practice is that whichever next KTR wins the next contract, generally picks up the KTR employees who were the incumbents.

I don't know of anything that would prohibit it.

If the contractor's standard practice is to allocate G&A to its travel costs, why shouldn't they do so in this case?

If the G&A + travel costs go over the JTR, would that be acceptable? I thought we were not allowed to go over government per diem rates.

[Retreadfed]

Deefarrd, note that the limitations on the JTR per diem rates are contained in the cost principles. They do not govern the costs a contractor can incur under an FFP contract. Further, for the costs the contractor incurs under a contract subject to the cost principles, the JTR per diem limits only apply to the per diem itself. Finally, please note that travel costs, e.g., airfare, are not subject to the per diem limitations. The per diem limitations only apply to the cost of lodging, meals and incidental expenses.