Masonry Magazine October 1994 Page. 7
FROM THE PRESIDENT
By L. C. PARDUE, JR.
President, Mason Contractors
Association of America
Wheels of Justice Grind Exceedingly Slow
MOST OF US have become involved with fast track construction jobs. I am here to tell you that the federal government has not embraced the concept of fast track law. If you have ever done work for the federal government you may or may not know that they have a clause in their contract that requires you to perform extra work at their direction even though you may not have a signed change order.
In late 1987 we entered into a $3.5 million contract to do the masonry work on a new federal prison. During the course of that project we were impacted by faulty construction documents and performed extra work at the direction of the Bureau of Prisons (BOP). Under the contract clause they then refused to pay for this work.
In mid 1989 we filed a claim against the BOP to recover the money for the extra work and the cost of the impact of the faulty drawings. The contracting officer for the BOP acknowledged the receipt of our claim and informed us that he would render a decision in twelve months. Fourteen months later he decided that he didn't understand our claim, he didn't understand masonry and that in his opinion we had no money coming.
In early 1991 we filed suit in the United States Court of Federal Claims. The BOP turned over the legal work to the commercial litigation branch division of the Department of Justice (DOJ). After numerous delays and extensions the attorneys assigned to the case finally visited our office in early 1992 and reviewed our files and marked boxes of documents to be copied and sent to their consultant in New Jersey.
In the fall of 1992 we met with the DOJ attorney and their consultant in New Jersey in an attempt to settle the claim. At that meeting the attorney informed us that he was leaving in two weeks and that the case would be given to someone else in the department.
This started another stretch of delays and extensions because the government had changed attorneys and needed time in order for her to talk with their consultants and get up to speed on the case. While the judge was pressing to set a trial date for mid 1993 we were approached to settle. We entered into to whirlwind, two day negotiations and on April 8, 1993 agreed to settle for roughly 50% of our claim provided we would have all of the papers signed and the money would be available within six weeks. The DOJ attorney even went so far as to ask where we wanted the check sent.
Some time in late summer of 1993 we were informed by the DOJ attorney that she really didn't have the authority to settle the case with us and that she needed more time to discuss the settlement with BOP. The first part of November 1993, we were told that in order for them to settle, an auditor, from the Defense Contract Audit Agency, must examine our records. Having nothing to hide we granted her request for a 45 day extension to allow the audit to be completed. It was started during the middle of January 1994 and completed about the first of February. Th The results of the audit showed that we had in fact lost a considerable amount of money on the project.
Around the beginning of April 1994, the DOJ took another run at us stating that it was our fault that this had taken so long to resolve and that they wanted a year's worth of interest removed from the settlement. Wanting a rapid settlement we reluctantly agreed. The case was settled on April 4th, 1994 for the same amount decided on a year ago (roughly 50%) less one year of interest.
On June 14, 1994 a judgment was entered by the judge. We were instructed as to exactly how to present this judgment to the General Accounting Office for payment which was done on July 1, 1994. Six weeks passed so we began an inquiry as to where our money was. After numerous phone calls we were informed that the individual that was processing our claim was a part time worker who only worked in the afternoons and was on vacation. Upon his return he informed us that he could not process our claim for payment because the paper work from the DOJ was not correct and the claim was sitting at the bottom of the pile on his desk. The massive bureaucratic paper jun-
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