Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog

C4ISR (Request for Equitable Adjustment)

Initially I was supremely impressed with the contractor when he said he would meet the 4 week deadline we set him to respond to the initial response to his claim (currently stacked at $1.5M and estimated to hit at least $2.5M when he finally figures out what his sub contractors are doing.) The amount of detail we requested and the format required was huge. The Government requires all of his claims to be laid out in a Fragmented Network (FragNet) which is basically a Gantt chart showing all influencing factors behind a change. The contractor has now requested a 2 week extension now that he’s realised exactly what this means in relation to his claim. It’s actually a good job because our schedule specialist who is conducting a similar exercise from the Government’s perspective has let us down on his product, stating ‘technical’ issues. Once we get all our ducks in a row I am proposing that we run through a logic exercise to set parameters on the forthcoming negotiations.

SolarWall

I was annoyed with the contractor in the build up to the start of construction as he was unable to produce a number of documents that we had agreed were necessary before anything could begin. The work is taking place on a working building which processes all non-perishable logistical goods for the US military world-wide. If our contractor manages to get in their way he could affect the ‘mission’ which is running 24hrs a day 365 days a year. To this end I stipulated a 2 week look-ahead with a de-confliction plan and drawings of how he will isolate his crew from the mission. This was to be used to brief the building manager to de-conflict our construction activities from the mission activities. When I would not allow construction to begin until he had furnished the Government with the aforementioned documents there was talk of ‘delays caused by the government’ which was quickly squashed. We’re now all on the same page and construction is underway. A large steel jigsaw puzzle is being slowly spread over the face of the building.

The biggest frustration of late was with the security on base who have now decided to try and enforce some policy (which nobody has heard of) that means our contractors can’t enter the building they are working on – and there was a strong chance that all work would come to a complete stop and at huge expense. After ranting for a good half hour in the office I then found out that the guy who’s causing the problems is married to the woman in the next cubicle to me…..at least what I really think has been communicated via the unofficial route. As a result of this I have ended up writing two suggested methods that security could use to be able to enforce their own policy without our contractors being exposed to unnecessary risk.

The whole issue of digital vs non-digital record keeping is almost resolved. I have been buried under huge piles of paperwork for the last week  just to get there. I now need to write a mini-procedure for if/when we end up doing similar ‘joint’ USACE projects.

Bldg 760 / 732

No involvement of late – the project is in the process of being awarded at higher level. Design review complete.

Headquarters Project…

My optimism for imminent progress has been crushed. Security have decided to stick their oar in and mix things up a bit for us all. Denying us access to certain areas that are necessary for construction to take place. The recurring theme here is that the security guys are working to enforce their own agenda as opposed to supporting the facility and working with them facilitate the mission in a secure manner. Quote of the day was ‘If it’s difficult, it means we’re doing our job well.’ IDIOTS! The construction is probably going to get into full swing just as I’m about to switch to phase 3….typical.

Ashley Reservist Center – (Still) Playing Sherlock Holmes

Still awaiting results from petrographic testing on concrete samples before deciding how to tackle the contractor. The issue of concrete quality has gone to a new level. Independent strength testing undertaken by the Corps lab has shown huge discrepancies between the independent lab and the specification requirements. The actual concrete provider is now under the microscope as we try to get to the bottom of what’s going on. Falsification of delivery tickets is also suspected.

Other news:

Boys returned safely to school. Naked house rules are in force.

Still haven’t won the lottery.

Country song updates [warning – don’t get drunk and sing these songs to your wife – then wonder why she’s pissed off with you (Roy)]:

I Don’t Know Whether To Kill Myself Or Go Bowling

I Wouldn't Take Her To A Dog Fight, Cause I'm Afraid She'd Win

My Wife Ran Off With My Best Friend And I Sure Do Miss Him

She Got The Ring And I Got The Finger

You're the Reason Our Kids Are So Ugly

Have finally found some country music I can tolerate…..perhaps I’m starting to turn native? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRWMwpPlm28&feature=BFa&list=AL94UKMTqg-9CnpThBkCJ5dqZW-bExOM6B

Following a week in North Carolina avoiding thunder storms and a week of ground rush upon return, things are now at a manageable level again to take 5, breathe, and blog.

C4ISR (Request for Equitable Adjustment)

The initial response ot the contractor has been completed and the fine tooth-comb approach will probably keep them busy for a while. In the meantime I continue to piece together evidence from the project files as to who did what, sort the facts and then put it in context with the contract, specification and the Federal Acquisition Regulations…….it makes me want to hurt myself. We have a schedule specialist working on historical submittals to add weight to our arguments and we will be gathering a game plan soon. I’m considering the use of a decision matrix type affair to map out potential negotiation options and respective costs.

SolarWall

I have reverse engineered the Quality Assurance procedures to identify why we’re having such problems with administering this contract. The fact that two district offices are involved, one with electronic QA and one with paper-based QA with differing responsibilities might be the culprit. Iam working through amended procedures to get us back up to speed. This is the second project that has fallen foul of this. Once construction begins and the flow of information changes this should be resolved fully.

I organised and held a pre-construction meeting on Tuesday this week as well as pushing out a QA plan for comment. Unfortunately the contractor is lacking in several areas including adequate safety considerations and I havve had to delay their start date on site until all is resolved. I took the ConRep for a drive to confirm their emergency route to the hospital (it just didn’t make sense) and suprisingly we ended up at pizza hut. I’m all for the idea of grabbing a pizza on the way to the hospital but I’m not sure how appropriate that is.

The designs are at final review stage and pending a list of revisions I am confident we will be in a position to start getting the materials on site and issue Notice ot Proceed. It’s amazing how many last minute snippets of information have the potential to bring about changes to the project (which we’re obviously trying to avoid for financial reasons).

Next week promises to be hugely busy as we have initial meetings, preps for the first phases of work, site set up, contract and system training etc etc . I’ll bore you with it another time.

Bldg 760 / 732

The designs for these projects are in review in preparation for tender purposes. I managed to add some benefit of the experience from the EDC solarwall project again but am still astounded by the fact they appear to be rushing this while thing through…and then they will be wondering why the changes are costing so much. The contractor on the EDC Solarwall is obviously bidding on these projects also – judging by the questions they keep asking.

Headquarters Project…

Has finally been awarded! 7 months late. There are a million and one outstanding RFIs and the team is still not yet complete, but I reckon with a good wind we can start pre-drilling the pile locations within a month….. My collegues love my optimism.

Client Relationships (Across the whole installation)

These are an issue at the minute. The clients representatives have little interest in how the projects are being run and rarely bother to attend progress meetings. When the projects aproach completion the interest level rise, and then they see the things they are’n happy with. This results in complaints and a bad rep for USACE. There is a lot of ‘them and us’ when we ought to be one and the same. I am reminded of when a partnership agreement fell to pieces for exactly the same reasons when I was working at a local authority. I have appointed a spy to find out what the score is (One of our guys used to work with them and is trusted).

Ashley Reservist Center – Playing Sherlock Holmes again

I visited the site to observe concrete samples being taken for petrographic analysis and have openend yet another bag of worms….I can’t bring myself to give the whole story here as you will pole pencils in your eyes. Basically I noticed some irregularities with an independent test company’s figures. These were corroborated by some additional testing and now we are having to seriously ask ourselves if we want to push this further. The company would lose its licence and the whole Quality Control regime on the project would be in tatters….as well as every other USACE project conducted in Pennsylvania over the last decade! The plot has been thickened further by potential falsification of batch tickets by the concrete supplier. In any case the alegations have huge implications and can not be made without……ait for it……concrete evidence (boom boom). We are waiting on further lab test results before figuring out a course of action. I’m recommending an audit of the test lab and supplier – but who pays? Currently we can keep taking samples at our own expense and then pass the costs on to the contractor every time they are found to be lacking but this is not a full fix. I’ll report more if it gets exciting.

Conclusions

The way to avoid costly modifications and changes is to ensure that what you put out to tender is as accurate and complete as possible….which the Government consistently fails to do.

We produce PMPs and then give them a really good stiff ignoring. In my view they are not written at the right level. When it all goes wrong nobody refers to the plan to see who’s meant to be doing what.

The contractor can never win. Even if his submittals are government approved, we can still stop him in his tracks when we find additional mistakes. I just hope his profit margin is up there.

What people saythey will do and what they actually do are different things. I don’t want to become a grumpy synical old man….but I think I see my future.

Other news:

Weeks few before the boys go back to school.

Ulli seeks additional hours at work and is preparing to do a realtor course.

3D photography skills improving.

Can now identify smell of skunk (The animal – not the weed)

Still haven’t won the lottery (hence blogging instead of seeking new identity in Caribian).

Top 5 Country Songs:

I Went Back to My Fourth Wife for the Third Time and Gave Her a Second Chance to Make a First Class Fool Out of Me
I Want a Beer as Cold as My Ex-Wife’s Heart
It’s Hard to Kiss the Lips at Night that Chew Your Ass Out All Day Long
I Wanna Check You for Ticks
My Give-A-Damn’s Busted

Things are really picking up pace now. This last week (and a bit) has focussed mainly on three projects, the EDC solarwall, Ashley reservist centre and C4 ISR  request for equitable adjustment, with the other projects sitting on a back-burner for now.

EDC Solarwall

The thing that really got the workload increased was kind of self inflicted but very important. There is a quality assurance procedure within USACE that ensures that all projects are adhering to the practices as laid out in the Project Management Business Process and ordinarily folk find that things become routine. However, because this project has originated from another office and has become a joint effort, the boundaries appear to be a little blurred and there is plenty of scope for things to fall through the cracks as one office assumes the other is doing their job right. Things aren’t helped by the fact that the originating office is going digital while we are still big fans of huge filing cabinets full of rain-forrests. Whilst conducting a review of the file for my own education a ton of grey areas and missing items became apparent, such as;

• Letters of delegation – to prove what authority we actually have here at this office.
• Correct Org charts from Contractor (and associated qualifications) – Required before we can give notice to proceed.
• Wage rates to accompany the award letters – we will need to verify wages and conduct employee interviews
• Clarification of who is responsible for construction submittals – needs to be our office but is currently set to Alabama
• Some submittals on technical issues have been given to the Contractor but are not recorded in the computer system – this means we (in our office) can not see what decisions have been made in order to process subsequent submittals
• Accident reporting chain is not clear – could result in accidents being reported twice, making the project look bad.
• Not all info is in the system for payroll complience – It is held in Alabama but will need to be executed here.
• Property trtansfer and warranty letters – again, set to Alabama but we are the local office that will have to deliver.
• Accurate schedule info held and available by Contractor but not up to date in the shared computer system – is a poor use of the tools made available to us all. Contractor must update, thus affording visibility at all levels.
• Definable Features of Work incorrectly logged in the computer systems. – Not immediately presenting an issue but when trying to analyse the schedule in future we would not be able to make sense of it. This would be a problem if we run into arguments further down the line and need to prove complicity.

So I’m currently trying to iron out all of the above, which is great for my own understanding of the procedures and will help to avoid issues in the future. If this is one of those rare occasions where the project is executed with minimal disruption, accidents or problems, then none of the above would really matter so much, but without resolving these items we will be in a world of hurt if the project starts falling to pieces. A ot of these things would simply not be an issue if the project had originated here in our office, but as it is external a lot of what we would take for granted is just not there.

I also invited the contractor to come and visit the site to identify lay-down and storage areas and to discuss some initial safety issues etc. The walk around the facility brough up some good questions whicvh has given me more research to conduct. All in all though – we’re making really good progress. The 100% design submissions are in for review and it’s all systems go.

Ashley Reservist Centre

Another visit to Ashley (entailing 8 hours of driving for a 4 hour visit) has opened my eyes yet again. In the last episode of the Ashley Saga, the Contractor was threatened with an interim non-satisfactory review – which means they can forget any future Government work unless theyu buck up their ideas. As a result they have boosted their staff and now have a second superintendent, a second quality control rep and an independent roofing specialist to help them get through the current problems. This has also coincided with the (potentially) problematic ConRep from the Government side having to go for an operation, which means that we have transferred another ConRep in. So far all the additional horsepower and change in personalities has been billed as a positive thing….until you get there and see that it’s all just the same sh1t dressed up differently.

The contractor will now be having a modification for the roof, meaning more cash and possibly more time. Funny old thing – anything that could go wrong with the roof is actually going wrong and it’s all the Government’s fault (if you listen to the contactor). The minute you call their bluff they suddenly figure out that the design given by the Government is buildable and that materials specified actually do exist. They arebasically  stalling in the hope that they can add extra dollars to the modification. At one point I had to interject in the meeting azs the contractor tried to get the project engineer to agree to a design change. And this is another thing that is wrong with this ptoject……

The designer of record has ultimate responsibility for hte design….but there was no money put aside for any design work after the original design was finished. Now when the contractor finds a better way of doing something or has a design related problem – nobody from the originating office wants to know. This means nobody is assuming reponsibility for changes. If the project engineer agrees to it – he becomes culpable if it’s wrong. The PE in question is young and relatively inexperienced. So now everyone is frustrated because we are now forced to build things that are less than optimal, that the contractor knows he coulds do better at no addiitonal cost, but we’re now stuck as the Contractor and the PE joust the residual risk between each other. I am speaking higher up the chain but everyone just seems to accept that it’s wrong and shouldn’t be the case.

We have also had core samples taken from the defective loading ramp for petrographic analysis as per my recommendations of old. I am now really glad we’re doing this as the independent company that does the quality control for the contractor has been called into question. There is an acusation from elsewhere within the Corps that they have been falsifying data to cover mistakes. The tests we are having done at independent labs will prove or disprove data that was taken when the ramps were placed. If the quality control data has been skewed throughout the project then the whole thing might as well be knocked down….though I doubt we’ll do that.

C4ISR Request for Equitable Adjustment

I’ve managed to sift through the tome of the adjustment and have formulated the response letter. Final comments were that I am still being too nice and need to learn to be more blunt with them. I again received positive feedback about my analysis tools that I developed and the District scheduling expert has said he will steal my format next time he has to do anything similar. My next step will be to formalise each item of negotiation and develop action flow charts and decision points for each. These should drive the negotiation limits when it finally gets to that point.

OK – now I’m sick of typing – so moving on…

And in other news:

Ulli has finally defeated the beast that is the Maryland Vehicle Administration! A cheer went up in the office when we got the news. A cheer went up in the appartment community when they found out and a facebook revolution almost happened as waves of support came in. Upon being told to ‘take a ticket and get in line’ for the 15th time she finally snapped and used logic instead. She looked for the biggest office with the nicest door and barged in and gave whoever was on the other side of the desk both barrels and told them the British Embassy was on their way. She threw in some tears for good measure and a lot of yelling later the poor manager fixed all her problems….I think she’ll miss queuing up there.

I make my first appearance at an open-mic night at a local winery – look out for a drop in sales and possibly police involvement.

Adrian is now scaring the bejeesus out of us all as he is now the ripe age of 16 and legal to drive in Murka. Ulli hides the real truth about how bad he is. We look forward to him sharing some of the driving when we take our family holiday to North Carolina in a couple of weeks time….if we make it there alive.

Finally – and you can thank Richard and Roy for this… the country and western song review is back. Here is a list of the top five songs from this week:

1 – Get Off the Table, Mabel (the $2 is for the Beer)

2- Love Me Like My Dog Does

3 – I Lost Freida on the Freeway

4 – I Bought the Shoes that Just Walked Out on Me

5 – How Can I Get Over You if You Won’t Get Out from Under Me?

If you made it this far – you probably skipped straight to the end! Take care y’all.

McFry

I’m almost afraid to admit this on the blog…..but I had a pleasant week and a bit since the last post….I’m sorry.

I took a bit of leave to spend time with the family after 4th July and the subsequent week has been akin to the last week of school before summer holidays. We had ‘office call’ where all the outlaying office persoinnel were called in for a USACE update – which was a veiled attempt to make everyone feel safe and secure in their jobs. Reading between the lines, it seems that a lot of USACE offices hired extra staff during the Base Realignment and Closure (BRaC) project and now that it’s over there is a surplus of staff that need to be either re-assigned or laid off. The summer hires were told not to get their hopes up of getting a job here. A whole bunch of generic training was thrown in for good measure and the event was finished off with a quiz and a BBQ…..nice.

EDC SolarWall®

I’ve been chasing RFIs in relation to the 65% design solution that was submitted and we are now at a stage where the design is ready to be re-submitted with all 22 agenda items being addressed which should see a gear change in activity….provided the contractor has actually done something about the security clearances.

One thing that almost caused a delay was a poorly delivered comment from the Client that led the Contractor to beleive that the site conditions were different than expected. In the end it was just a query about available space for sealing the duct work work. This is frustrating as a hastily prepared conference was required to ascertain this before the sigh of releif came.

The recent modification to the design has resulted in over $14,500 being unallocated. This would ordinarily be great news for the Client, but as with all Government mechanisms….this means more admin. Ben has commented previously about the credits system which is aimed at minimising this. So we’ll sit on this until another hiccup shows and then there’s a pot of cash to deal with it. Then at the very end of the project we balence the books as per the final price….unless they go over budget ofcourse.

ECIP 732 / 760

My boss agreed with previous comments I made about the PMP that District produced and sent her own correspondence. This time they are taking relevant actions to ensure correct buy in and project risk management is covered. Perhaps I was too polite when I responded? Revised schedule completed.

C4ISR Tobyhanna

My CC1 of the matrix I sent out to District appears to have pissed off a few folk. There was a sudden rush of activity that was bypassing the guy who is ultimately responsible for producing the next set of work, so I sent a plain pictoral format flow chart showing what was expected of each stakeholder. Well it seems to have worked.

On a seperate issue – some representatives from District came to deliver some training, funnily enough, on contract adjustments and how they are administered and negotiated – so perfect timing. The odd thing about this was that they are trying to get us to adopt a certain way of working so that they can have more credence in changing policy. I always thought that you made policy then trained employees based on that policy, not the other way around. There is perhaps some politics at play here.

I have held the first coordination meeting to discuss findings so far and we have a coordinated approach to the initial response to the REA. The amount of documents that we now have to read through and analyse is huge and I understand why the contract admin guys always look like they want to hurt themselves. This is great experience – but by goodness I wouldn’t want to do it for a living!

I am now drafting statements to include in the response and ensuring that every stone is turned. I would like to plot a flow chart for each negotiable item to provide decision point for future use, but am not sure about the effort vs pay off curve at this point……I will try not to turn to self harm in the meantime.

Ashley Reservist Centre

This has finally come to a head. As a result of the last report I did on this project a ‘mystery snap inspection’ was conducted by District who concluded that the Quality Assurance and Quality Control is sub standard. This has resulted in an interim Non-Satisfactory performance rating. This means that unless the contractor sorts himself out, he is unlikely to ever be considered for Government work again. There is also an option to terminate the contract which will be another bag of fun learning for the Fryster. I just hope it doesn’t kick off until the C4ISR is put to bed or I might really hurt myself.

And in other news….

Lukas needed medical treatment for an ear infection but was point blank turned away from the local clinic when Ulli took him there. This is because we don’t have the correct medical insurance to cover this (No cash accepted). The advice from the embassy was to take him to the Emergency Room. ER for an earache? really? There’s a lot of talk on the news about Obama care and how terrible it would be to end up with a European style health care system. I know which I prefer.

We have started receiving weather updates on a regular basis now. We have severe weather warnigns much more frequently and they have proven valuable on more than one occasion for me, but just recently they have started to includse space weather reports as well…..I’ve never taken much notice of space weather before, but you’ll all be glad to know that the recent M-Class solar event will have no significant influence to us in our daily lives….but if you were planning on listening to the radio in the North pole then you’ve lucked out. You’ll also be glad to know that the magnetic field remains stable.

Birthday coming up in August….is it wrong that I am 34 years old and want a skateboard?

 Don’t try doing your blog slow time online over the course of the day….it times out, you lose it and have to start again…..not cool. Really not cool.

God bless Murka.

In my capacity as British Army Officer and Diplomat extraodinairre – I have been telling everyone here at the office that my role over the holidays is to accept the colonials back into the fold and look over the terms of their complete and unequivocal surrender on July 4th……. This is entirely met with scepticism. Even my t-shirt comemorating the war of 1812 is doing nothing to win them over. My work will be cut out for me.

Much the same os for Chris Warner – there is not a great deal of new stuff to speak of – just grinding the handle on existing stuff.

EDC Solarwall

By pressing the Government employees for swif tturn around on submittals we have brought the contractor almost back on track with his schedule (so he owes us!).

Reviewed the commissioning report – and took pleasure in pointing out all of the deliberate mistakes from where they cut and paste from other projects. (Proving it’s not just us that do it.)

65% design submission comments completed – contractor now has to push out the 100% design. We will soon be gearng up for the on-site phase coming in mid to late August.

Risk management documentation reviewed and approved with comments.

General – this contractor is certainly now making all of the right noises and is consistently hitting submittal dates and taking all comments and guidance on board with no push-back. This is unnerving seeing as pretty much every other project is FUBAR. I’m waiting for the tidal wave. The only real sticking point I ever seme to have on this one is with the Client who occasionally appears too busy to facilitate the RFI process. It has also been interesting to see the evolution of the project schedule witrh applied costs. Initial estimates were clearly way out in certain areas and now that granularity has been added you see huge drops in some areas and massive increases in others…..but the bottom line is that the proffit in Government work is massive!…where do I sign up?

ECIP 732 / 760

Having upset a few folk by giving my honest opinion of the PMP for this project they have gone ahead and scheduled the kick-off design meeting…….without us. They also failed to include any personnel that would help them with the independent checks. They now have a very limited time to get design approval and guess what? – Holiday week for 4th of July means there is as much chance of that happening as the Americans surrenduring to me and re-joining the Empire. Perhaps this will be the antithesis of the EDC project.

C4ISR Tobyhanna

This is a Request for Equitable Adjustment where the contractor claims we owe them cash for a finished project. The current figure sits at $1.25M with outstanding elements from his sub contractors at $1M, This has swallowed the bulk of my time over the las couple of weeks.

I developed some tools to help me analyse the REA and break down the individual parts. These also work as a collaborative tool and form a record of decisions for posterity for if (or more likely WHEN) this goes to litigation.  The tools are in 2 parts. One is a word document onto which all parties can assess and analyse the letter itself which is scanned and embedded in tables. Each page contains summaries of our interpretation of the info, additional RFIs, action points and lines to take. The second part is a timeline for the whole project which gathers and collates facts to compare the Contractor’s claims to evidence found on the system or in the files. The collaborative nature of this means we can keep applying more data for more granularity and I have had a summer-hire working along side me to do this.

The great confidence boost was when the top contracts guy in our office admitted that he intends to steal my ideas for his other REAs and the Schedule specialist described the content so far as the gold standard that other offices should try and emulate…so I’m pretty chuffed with that!

Given the nature and size of the claim – there has been a sudden buzz at District and every man and his dog wants to have input. As a result I have sent out a Charlie-Charlie-1showing the matrix on who can do what so as to prevent mission creep. Too many chefs and all that.

And in other news:

Have witnessed the craziest electrical storms ever.

Wife has had yet another MVA fail. The bureaucratic nazis refuse to give her a drivers licence because passport says Ulrike Marie Fry – & Social Security Card says Ulrike M Fry…..so she’s clearly not who she says she is and is not to be trusted. We’re now back to square one on this.

Ultimate road kill (back by popular demand) – This time it was the top of the food chain. A guy was run over and killed just outside a shopping mall near the mechanicsburg project. Police and medics were trying to move the body and stopped the traffic. Pillock behind me decides he needs to beep his horn a lot because that will definitely get things moving again. I wanted to get out and smack him but the police man was already busy enough without having to arrest me as well.

Happy 4th of July everyone!