CO vs COR duties

[ArkyCO]

I'll make this brief; I wanted opinions regarding what degree a CO is liable for a COR's inaction. I am a CO, and I recently became engaged with a manager of the office that the COR is in about some actions the COR failed to take within the scope of their delegated duties regarding the performance of the contractor. The manager argued with me that the lack of action was both the fault of the previous CO and COR; however, I argued that the tasks in question were clearly within the scope of the delegated COR duties (he did not argue that point), and that the blame lies on his (COR's) shoulders. The manager insisted it was a team failure, while I argued that a COR falling short of their duties is not the fault of the CO. In other words, in this scenario, I'm not willing to budge on the blame sharing. I was curious as to everyone's opinion/experience with matters similar to this. Thanks!

[C Culham]

15 hours ago, ArkyCO said:

I'll make this brief; I wanted opinions regarding what degree a CO is liable for a COR's inaction. I am a CO, and I recently became engaged with a manager of the office that the COR is in about some actions the COR failed to take within the scope of their delegated duties regarding the performance of the contractor. The manager argued with me that the lack of action was both the fault of the previous CO and COR; however, I argued that the tasks in question were clearly within the scope of the delegated COR duties (he did not argue that point), and that the blame lies on his (COR's) shoulders. The manager insisted it was a team failure, while I argued that a COR falling short of their duties is not the fault of the CO. In other words, in this scenario, I'm not willing to budge on the blame sharing. I was curious as to everyone's opinion/experience with matters similar to this. Thanks!

At first I wondered if it really matters who is to blame as the net effect is some kind of issue with the contract/contractor that must be solved by "the government".   And then I thought about it personally and reasoned that if I was the CO and I had a COR that was not performing to my expectations I would find a new COR.  I understand easily said but not easily done but all the same it is me as the CO that has delegated my authority to the COR.  So the magic question to the manager might be "Are you willing to delegate your authority to the COR?" 

The references to support my personal position would be -

FAR Part 2 and the definitions of CO and COR and 1.604.  

The COR is the CO for certain delegated authorities I have given to him/her.  The COR is not independent of me as the CO he/she is me as the CO.

[joel hoffman]

As long as the COR is delegates duties by the KO, the KO is still responsible for oversight and for supervising their actions. If the COR refuses to accept your authority, I’d remove and replace them.