alexb

Vern, Thanks for your thoughts. I'm wondering what choice we had but to accept the stated numbers (or not propose)? If we had checked with the utilities what would you have suggested we do at that point if the amounts were off? I'm curious, in your experience have you seen the government dictate pricing before?

Vern, Also, at the bottom of the list of CLINs it says "TOTAL BASE PRICE $ ______________ (ITEMS 0001 thru 0005)," so the total price was based on our filled in prices for each CLIN with a blank price, plus the prices provided by the government for the utility connection fee CLINs. Thanks.

Vern, The Base Pricing Schedule in the SF 1442 lists each CLIN with description, e.g. "Gas Utility Connection Fee," Unit of Measure "Lump Sum" and either a blank space ($______) for us to fill in the price, or a number already populated in the price line (e.g., $18,000.00). All of the Utility connection fee items have a price already typed into the price column, so there is no blank space. This is what we received in the RFP, with instruction to fill in our prices in all the appropriate spaces. So we filled in the prices next to the items where price was blank, and did not fill in any price for the items where the government had already filled in the price. Thanks, Alex

Joel, I searched the RFP for all mentions of prices/pricing, pricing schedule, utilities, etc. and the only language about the CLINs and pricing schedule instructs that the contractor's proposed contract line item prices must be inserted in the appropriate spaces and that prices must be proposed for all CLINs and sub-CLINs. There is language about use of utilities while on site and the costs being reimburseable, but that is based on FAR 52.236-14 addressing temporary utilities needed for construction and site trailer. CCulham, Thanks for chiming in and the article. I will look into that duty to see if we can't form an argument there.

Joel, Thanks for your response and sharing any thoughts you have based on what you have encountered. This is a DoD installation with privatized utilities. The line item descriptions (there are a few of them) are for various utility connection fees, including Gas, Power, Water, Sewer, Storm Drain. The items each say "Lump Sum" - the language doesn't indicate whether it is subject or not to adjustment. Apparently the numbers were just plug numbers the govt came up with, not based on any actual proposals that the govt received from the utility companies. We don't know how the govt came up with the numbers, perhaps based on its past experience with those companies on the base. Here_2_help and others, To clarify, I am not looking for an expert legal opinion - I'm looking to see if anyone has faced this (or a similar) situation before with govt plugged numbers and whether they were able to convince the govt to adjust the prices, and if so what FAR clauses/cases may speak to this type of issue of incorrect govt-imposed prices. Isn't that what this forum is for? I've seen people give responses here with citation to FAR clauses and cases before. Just looking for anyone that might have experienced this issue and where I can look to get more info. Thanks.

Can someone point me in the right direction on the following issue: we have a construction contract, firm-fixed-price, in which the government dictated certain costs on the SF 1442 base pricing schedule for utility connection fees. We weren't able to negotiate these costs. However, the utility fees ended up being significantly more than what was indicated by the government on the pricing schedule. We had no control over the fees charged to us by the utility companies and were obligated to pay the excess fees in protest to keep the work moving along. We have asked the government for a modification to cover the excess cost of these fees. First a government representative indicated that once we paid all the utility bills they would do a final modification to adjust the amounts to reflect the actual fees. But now the contracting officer's position has come back saying that we agreed to perform the work for that price and we are not entitled to additional payment because the work was within the scope of the contract. Do we have any grounds in the FAR or case law to convince the government that we are entitled to the excess utility fees? Thanks.