Success Story 1
Through close collaboration with the Government Contracting Officer (CO), which we work hard to establish and maintain, Dean Ellis quickly discovered that not only did the firm need a robust contracts administration and compliance group but also an innovative approach for handling "scope creep" issues that had long plagued this $80 million a year program. By instituting a change order request and review process we gave the contractor and government staff much needed insight into changes and costs overrun issues related to product development and technical support. We combined this with weekly meetings with the CO and appropriate program and technical managers to mitigate conflicts in interpretation of scope of work items, controlling scope creep, and the related unexpected costs that usually follows.
Additionally we revised the process by which "contractor acquired property" (CAP) was purchased and tracked via the introduction of a barcode property management system which the government client had not previously been using. This allowed the government client to more accurately report on and track CAP for the program's financial reporting teams.
Success Story 2
Implemented/Installed a contracts and administration department in what was formally a $100 million transportation consulting and engineering company that had been acquired as a wholly-owned subsidiary by a $2 billion government prime contractor. Their systems and controls needed to mirror the parent company and this required a bottom up retooling of all systems including contracts, subcontracts, software licenses and financial reporting systems and controls with a specific emphasis on CAS compliance.
Working with the new CFO we developed training programs to assist line managers and technical staff as to the required controls. Most of the company's work was under contracts from the Federal Highways Administration working through state and local government DOT's.
Success Story 3
This company was, at the time, a 40 year old $100 million firm that specialized in water/wastewater treatment facility design along with environmental remediation, consulting and laboratory services. They were chosen as a subcontractor for a 10 year $400 million dollar prime contract of which their services would be roughly $40 million. Upon review of the subcontract requirements and the FAR flow-down provisions the in-house legal staff advised the senior leadership that they would need a "subject matter expert" to lead the company in this contracting effort.
What we soon discovered was that not only did the firm need a robust and fully compliant contracts administration and compliance organization but also a complete retooling of the accounting systems. This included timekeeping, purchasing, subcontractor management and oversight. After installing the new financial systems CAS Compliance was the next focus area. I enlisted and associate to assist in the development and submission of the companies first Disclosure Statement and worked closely and successfully with DCAA on exemptions to certain timekeeping issues that were unique to this firm.
Success Story 4
The company's government contracting business was mostly conducted through the General Services Administration's GSA Schedule Contracts. As we began the process of submitting the company's pricing, discounts and systems information for their upcoming submission we discovered what appeared to be "defective pricing" situation for the past year(s) submissions. As we got more into the prior years it was soon clear that the company's commercial clients were getting the discounts that should have been reserved for the government. In total 3 years worth of schedules were defective.
Following this discovery Dean Ellis worked with in-house and outside counsel to develop a "self disclosure" submission of our findings. I led the team to a meeting with the GSA IG in Washington, DC. to discuss our findings. In the weeks following the disclosure the GSA filed a defective pricing claim of $8 million against the company and began a formal audit of the schedules. Their was a strong possibility of a this becoming a criminal defective pricing claim but after several months of effort we submitted our analysis for the period(s) in question and the final determination by the the GSA IG was a $1.8 million dollar claim and a no criminal defective pricing.
Our analysis showed that there was a lack of understanding by the sales organization as to the discounting rules for GSA items that are also sold commercially. Working with the VP of Sales and corporate counsel we developed a training program and initiated a review/sign off of sales orders by the contracts manager and corporate counsel.
Success Story 5
This small tech start up, that specialized in the early development and use of document/image conversion software and hardware, hired Dean Ellis to help them upgrade and improve there government contracts and administration group along with the training of senior management and staff on federal contract compliance.
The firm had recently been award a major government prime contract for their products and services and the Founder an CEO, who was retired Airforce captain, new that he needed a much more robust contracts group for this endeavor. The main areas of focus were proposal preparation, cost and pricing data collection and project management, contracts and software license agreements.
Working with outside legal Dean Ellis developed a complete suite of contract documents including consulting services, nondisclosure, software licenses, maintenance and subcontracts. This entire endeavor was completed in under 3 months. The company was eventually purchased by a large Silicon Valley office systems firm.
Success Story 6
This $100 million company was the prime contractor for what was at the time the Defense Communication Agency (DCA) and the firm was responsible for the development and management, of what is now the internet when it was exclusively a military network. Their major tasks were network operations, upgrades, deployment of software and hardware around the CONUS and locations in several foreign countries.
The biggest compliance need was for an enhanced ability to monitor and report, under FAR 45 and 52, the hardware, software and upgrades being deployed at these sites. Dean Ellis successfully installed a property management system including field training of appropriate staff and for the first time using the internet to do field reporting through regular downloads. This system eliminated what was at the time a $800k contractor acquired property audit exposure.
