ACE | The Contracting Education Academy

June 19, 2018 By cs

Army incurred costly delays on construction of Texas hospital

The Army’s delays and added work orders for construction improvements for a hospital at Fort Bliss, Texas, cost the Defense Department more than $32.1 million, according to a new report from the inspector general.

The watchdog faulted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Defense Health Agency for a lack of guidance on reporting of expenditures.

An audit of the continuing construction of the Fort Bliss Hospital Replacement project was required under the fiscal 2018 National Defense Authorization Act. When complete, it will be a 1.13 million square foot-facility housing 135 hospital beds, 10 operating rooms and 30 specialty clinics, plus an administrative building, a research building, a central utility plant, two access control points and surface parking.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.govexec.com/defense/2018/06/army-incurred-costly-delays-construction-texas-hospital/148899/

February 8, 2017 By cs

Engineer takes on emergency management projects

It’s not often you hear someone say, “I have a passion for deploying on emergency management debris missions.”

Meet Chad Braun.

In addition to working as a senior project engineer and civil engineer for the Corps of Engineers, Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville, Braun has been a quality assurance representative, team leader, supervisor and subject matter expert, providing QA oversight and technical assistance to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for projects to remove and dispose of debris after a natural disaster.

“My main role on these missions is to ensure that the debris removal and disposal is being performed in accordance with FEMA guidelines,” said Braun, who has twice been honored for his efforts. “This entails extensive coordination with contractors, local government officials, monitoring firms, homeowners and FEMA representatives. It’s rewarding work: the team is executing the mission so that the affected people and communities can start to rebuild and move forward with recovery.”

Read more about Chad Braun’s satisfaction with being a part of the Army acquisition workforce here: http://www.theredstonerocket.com/military_scene/article_e666201e-e88a-11e6-bca4-9be3e7467d6a.html

April 7, 2016 By cs

Price reasonableness determinations for FSS supply orders by Army’s Huntsville operation need improvement

The Inspector General (IG) of Department of Defense (DoD) reports that contracting personnel at the U.S. Army Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville (CEHNC) did not adequately document and support their price reasonableness determinations for 25 Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) orders, valued at $10 million.

The IG reviewed a total, non-statistical sample of 33 orders, valued at $13.6 million. The IG’s office determined that CEHNC contracting personnel relied on:

Inadequate independent Government estimates for all 25 orders. This occurred because they relied on the expertise of the preparers of the Independent Government Estimates (IGEs) rather than having the preparers document and support the basis of the estimate as required by the Army Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers guidance. In addition, while the contracting officers stated that they took training on preparing IGEs, they did not document that they completed that training.
Vendor quotes were eliminated from consideration for technical reasons for 7 of the 25, valued at $3 million, without verifying whether the prices were still valid for comparison purposes. The contracting officer involved in the actions admitted that this was an oversight.
CEHNC contracting personnel relied on price reasonableness determinations that were not approved until after the award of 4, valued at $1.76 million, of the 33 orders. Again, the contracting officer stated that this was an oversight.

Bottom line, the IG determined that CEHNC did not have guidance requiring contracting personnel to approve price reasonableness determinations before awarding orders. As a result, CEHNC’s customers may have paid more than they should have for the supplies purchased.

In its report, the IG recommend that:

Refresher training be conducted, detailing contracting officer’s responsibilities for developing, reviewing, and approving IGE’s;
Completion of such training by contracting personnel be documented;
Guidance be developed and implemented requiring contracting personnel to verify that the prices from quotes eliminated for technical reasons are valid for comparison purposes when making price reasonableness determinations; and
Guidance be developed and implemented requiring contracting personnel to approve price reasonableness determinations before awarding orders.

The IG’s complete report can be viewed at: http://www.dodig.mil/pubs/documents/DODIG-2016-069.pdf

October 12, 2015 By cs

Bid-rigging ringleader sentenced to 88 months

A Great Falls, Virginia, businessman was sentenced a little more than seven years in prison for bribing officials at the Army Corps of Engineers for contracts.

Young N. Cho, also known as Alex Cho, received an 88-month sentence and must repay $7.6 million to the Corps for his role in the bid-rigging scheme, according to the Department of Justice. He also must pay a forfeiture judgment of another $6.9 million. The sentencing took place on Oct. 8, a day before the Justice Department announced it.

From 2007 to 2011, Cho, as chief technology officer for Nova Datacom, paid $17 million in bribes to former Army Corps program manager Kerry F. Khan and another $1 million to former program manager Michael A. Alexander to get government contracts, according to the Justice Department. He also conspired with officials to steer a contract worth nearly $1 billion to his company, according to Justice.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.federaltimes.com/story/government/acquisition/2015/10/09/bid-rigging-ringleader-sentenced-88-months/73666058/

September 22, 2015 By cs

Army Corps of Engineers paid $2.2M for half-finished building, audit shows

The Army Corps of Engineers paid more than $2 million for a half-built facility in Afghanistan that it has plans to complete, according to an Aug. 25 Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction report.

In 2012, a Kandahar Airfield Infrastructure Planning Board official proposed construction of a command and control facility at Camp Brown to support missions in southern and western Afghanistan.

The USACE awarded the contract for the facility in June 2012, and the facility was supposed to be completed by July 2013, SIGAR says in the report.

From November 2012 to August 2013, USACE sent more than a dozen letters to the contractor pointing out issues with the work site, including safety hazards, poor quality and lack of timely design submittals as well as construction schedule slippage, the report says.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.fiercegovernment.com/story/army-corps-engineers-paid-22m-half-finished-building-audit-shows/2015-09-02

The Army’s delays and added work orders for construction improvements for a hospital at Fort Bliss, Texas, cost the Defense Department more than $32.1 million, according to a new report from the inspector general.

It’s not often you hear someone say, “I have a passion for deploying on emergency management debris missions.”

Meet Chad Braun.

A Great Falls, Virginia, businessman was sentenced a little more than seven years in prison for bribing officials at the Army Corps of Engineers for contracts.

The Army Corps of Engineers paid more than $2 million for a half-built facility in Afghanistan that it has plans to complete, according to an Aug. 25 Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction report.

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