22 hours ago, Krimz said:

I do not know of anything that explicitly prohibits changes (of any kind) after final payment/acceptance.  

Maybe you need to take the issue of final payment up with Jamaal.

22 hours ago, Krimz said:

To be more specific, there are plenty of things that might preclude a change, but I don't know of anything that prohibits it.

If you were the contracting officer and received an objection to a proposed change order, such as what I provided, what would your response be other than "I don't know of anything that specifically prohibits the change order"?

3 hours ago, Retreadfed said:

Maybe you need to take the issue of final payment up with Jamaal.

If you were the contracting officer and received an objection to a proposed change order, such as what I provided, what would your response be other than "I don't know of anything that specifically prohibits the change order"?

It depends on the circumstances, but in the case of a construction contract, I would cite 52.243-4 Changes, which begins with, "(a) The Contracting Officer may, at any time, without notice to the sureties, if any, by written order designated or indicated to be a change order, make changes in the work within the general scope of the contract, including changes-" (emphases added).

What would you say if you were the contractor?

Btw, no issue w/ final payment.  I was ultimately replying to you.  We're just spitballing here, trying to learn.

 

3 hours ago, Krimz said:

(a) The Contracting Officer may, at any time,

I would say that the FAR coverage  in this regard is poorly written and interpreting "at any time" literally produces an absurd result in that such an interpretation permits the government to issue change orders in regard to the work until infinity even after the work becomes government property.  Obviously, this is not what was intended.  Further, such an interpretation would allow the government to ignore statutes like CICA, by simply issuing change orders to a completed contract in perpetuity to obtain work that should be accomplished under a new contract.  Also, hanging your hat on these works ignores the effect acceptance has on the contract.  Once the work becomes government property, the contractor no longer has any responsibility for the work unless there is a clause in the contract, such as a warranty clause, specifically imposing such responsibility.

If I refuse to perform, what are you gong to do to me, issue a T4D?  A T4D is a government claim and you would have the burden of showing that the contractor was in default and the T4D is justified.  

Also, how would you defend a protest by a third party that the change order is an illegal sole source contract?

17 hours ago, Retreadfed said:

Once the work becomes government property, the contractor no longer has any responsibility for the work unless there is a clause in the contract, such as a warranty clause, specifically imposing such responsibility.

I have not researched the "at any time" language but you have elluded to one one possible reason, warranty.   I would agree an implied "in perpetuity" could be a stretch.  On this my thoughts go to statute of limitations of the Disputes clause.   But then again, and  without research, I think about such things as the wording of bonding forms and the caveats they have about when oblibations under bonds are satisfied, and then there is fraud (like in FAR clause 52.212-4)and how one might excercise contractual rights regarding each.   Seems like there might be contract clauses and obligations that might have generated the "at any time" language. 

Regarding warranties, it isn’t uncommon for the government to make warranty calls for damage or failures that turn out to be not covered by the warranty, such as lack of maintenance, user errors, breakage by other causes, etc. I’ve seen this numerous times.

In those cases, the government would generally mod the contract to reimburse the contractor for the warranty call and any remedial work performed.

During the warranty period, both parties have rights under the contract depending upon who is responsible for an action (risk allocation). These rights, duties and obligations survive inspection, acceptance and final payment.