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elsmiles

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    Gym, Traveling, Snowboarding, Surfing, Camping, Biking, Motorcycles, hiking, anything and everything. Always thinking "Where to next?"
  1. Great alternative and thank you for the option, but this agency is not financing friendly, so advance payments would not be well received. Based on everyone's response it looks like I will be sending this up the chain to DPAP. Thank you, everyone, for your input.
  2. Looked up that clause, but our agency still requires higher level approvals. I was hoping to find something to keep the approvals at the lowest level if possible. Thank you for your input.
  3. Thank you, ji20874, for the input. The nature of the contract requires the contractor to output at a high rate which in turn results in funds spent faster than your typical common contract. The contractor does not have additional funds that a for-profit has to be able to sustain at such a high rate without additional resources. The demand is the government's and not the contractor, so to alleviate the high demand and support the high output, the government pays faster. The question was not whether or not the government should pay faster or not, the question was are there any other authorities that can be used to further decrease the payment days.
  4. I have a CPFF DOD contract in which FAR Clause 52.232-25 Alt 1 is present. The clause currently states 14 days for interim payments to the non-profit large contractor. The contractor is asking for payment within 10 days due to the high output of the contract and we have granted them approval to invoice every week. Payment within 10 days has been the precedence for many years on this contract, however, within the past 5 years, regulations and restrictions have become stricter and it would appear that now I have to gain approval through DPAP to adjust the days from payment in 14 days to payment in 10 days. The minor change in days seems rather non-value added to have it approved at such a high level and I could not find any exceptions that could keep it within the DOD branch. By the way, the payment agencies are on board and willing to support whatever payment schedule we come up with. Here is my level of thinking: FAR 52.232-25 Alt. 1(e)(2) states payment will be made within 30 days. DFAR 232.906 Making Payments, allows for 14 day interim payments when using the Alt.1, so we are currently using the 14 days. Beyond these two regulations, I was unable to find anything else that could assist me in adjusting the payments days to 10 days or any authority that would support the change, beyond having to go through all the way up to the higher levels and submitting the change as a deviation. Any guidance or advise would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
  5. Update: Thank you for your insightful input. It's the same logic and thought processes (or arguments) that I had originally considered. In the end, I posted the BPA award at my supervisor's urging; however, I did not feel it necessary to post the all the details in which the world was not privy to, considering it was not an interested party. I merely posted that the award was made and to whom it was made to. All of the interested parties who suffered with me through the agonizingly long process were provided the appropriately allowable information as provided by the FAR. Thanks again.
  6. Question: If I award an open market commercial BPA (between $150K - $4M) under FAR Part 12 and 13, NOT FAR 15, that was advertised on FBO.gov for fair opportunity public response, am I required to post an award synopsis/announcement for my BPA award? Thoughts: FAR Part 13.303 BPAs and FAR 12.6 do not state that a post award synopsis are required, and FAR 13.106-3© states that contract awards under SAT need only to provide results when requested or as FAR 5.301 is applicable. According to FAR 5.301, the contract award needs to be announced on GFE when the 1) contract award is over $25K and i) covered under WTO/FTA OR ii) likely to results in subcontracts, 2) the contract award is over SAT and i) FSS orders of BPAs supported by limited source justifications IAW FAR 8.405-6 OR ii) TO/DOs awarded w/o fair opportunity. Then FAR 5.301(a)(3) provides exceptions to posting an award synopsis/announcement. Based on the above, my BPA award does not fit anywhere because of the following: 1) manufactured or services to be provided in the US - WTO/FTA does not apply 2) it is a BPA NOT a contract being awarded 3) the solicitation was publicized unrestricted on FBO.gov, so the public had a fair opportunity to bid What am I missing or do I have it right? I have no problem sending unsuccessful letters, but I want to make sure that I am following FAR Part 5 publications. Please provide the authority with your feedback. Thank you.
  7. Kudos to martyfnemec and to the others who shared their experiences. Thank you. I am inspired. It's good to know people still have good values and care. I started in the private sector working on military programs as a Contract Administrator with a supportive team to going to the government (for the stability and pension) and not getting much support except for finding those few folks who were willing to spend the time to teach me. Lucky for them, I am a blue personality and an initiator for improvement in the workplace. I am now a team lead and resource for my leadership with aspiring goals to move up further. To the initiator of this posting, everyone who replied is pretty much right on. Everyone will experience different situations and issues with their agency. Each office has its own creative flow and challenges. I worked in both DOD and Civilian agencies and have no preference. I have 5 years in the private industry for contracting, 3 years in the civilian agency, and 2 in the DOD agency. I got my feet wet in the civilian agency as I was sick of watching my pay dwindle for every extra hour I was forced to work over the weekends in the private side with no satisfaction. I was loyal to them, but they werent to me. I joined the local civilian agency and got to take care of my fellow veterans -- finally I could see the people who are benefiting from my work. However, I wanted to utilize my international business MBA degree, so I jumped ship to the DOD in South Korea. The DOD did not work out for me, though my branch was supportive, as the leadership I was under was not supportive of growing me into a leader, so I am currently CONUS on the civilian side. I learned from the beginning that the only person who will look after you is you. The agencies/companies will survive without you. It's what you make of it, not necessarily what is given to you. Unfortunately or maybe fortunately, I have been bit by the travel bug and foresee myself back in another DOD agency for the benefits of living anywhere but home in the near future. Your situation may be different depending on if you have family or kids to be concerned for, but I have no one to worry about, so I am free to pack my bags and jump. My two cents comes from one of my mentors from the private industry: figure out what you want in your work environment and set out to find it, but remember, the grass is NEVER greener on the other side, just different. That came true when I worked overseas. I could tell you stories. If you see an opportunity for a positive change, pursue it wholeheartedly as your best character comes out when you work hard for it and the satisfaction is that much sweeter. The other advice he gave me was to never burn bridges since contracting is a universal career field across every industry. I still keep in touch with all my past agencies and companies. Some of the folks are lifelong friends. I was taught the rule of 2/3. If at least two of the three characteristics of your work are fulfilled (work, salary and people), then it is not that bad. If you are happy with two of the three, then the place is stable. However, if only one or none is fulfilled, something needs to change. I am looking for a place that will satisfy all three. Hence, I continue to move. Loyalty works well when your leadership is also loyal to you, but in today's age, especially in the government, I see too many people in management who are not willing to support their staff and make a decision that will benefit them in the long run. There are too many "present" thinkers and years later that decision comes back with a vengence for others to clean up. I am still searching for that opportunity to grow, improve the workplace, and be able to grow those around me. Last words, no matter where you work or who you work with/for, as long as you learn something, then it was worth the change. I can't say it was worth the time spent, but any change has the opportunity to turn into a positive change. Good Luck!
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