S02_Att10 Definitions and Abbreviations 01 42 16 7APR17.pdf

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DEFINITIONS, ABBREVIATIONS, AND ACRONYMS

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FAR 46.101 and FAR 52.202-1 Definitions is supplemented and clarified by the following:

1. Acceptance and Final Completion: Occurs only when the Contracting Officer specifically accepts the work in writing, indicating that all parts of the contract, except the required warranty term support, are complete without exception, including all field work, all administrative closeout documentation, and Release of Claims (in addition to other open deliverables required of the Contracting Officer).

Releases Final Payment for the outstanding balance, or balance withheld for incomplete items.

2. Activity: A distinct, scheduled portion of work performed during the course of a project, typically representing a number of associated Tasks.

3. Conditional Acceptance means acceptance of supplies or services that do not conform to contract quality requirements, or are otherwise incomplete, that the contractor is required to correct or otherwise complete by a specified date.

4. Contracting Officer: As described at VAAR 852.236-78 Government Supervision: The VA Contracting Officer is the one person with the authority to enter into, administer, and/or terminate contracts and make related determinations and findings, and may fulfill the role of Administrative Contracting Officer or Termination Contracting Officer unless others are assigned those duties.

Reference in regulation (48 CFR Chapter 1) to administrative contracting officer or termination contracting officer does not—

A. Require that a duty be performed at a particular office or activity; or

B. Restrict in any way a contracting officer in the performance of any duty properly assigned.

5. Contract Quality Requirements: means the technical requirements in the contract relating to the quality of the product or service and those contract clauses prescribing inspection, and other quality controls incumbent on the contractor, to assure that the product or service conforms to the contractual requirements.

6. COR: Contracting Officer’s Representative: As described at VAAR 852.236-78 Government Supervision: The VA employee designated and authorized in writing by the Contracting Officer to act as resident engineer at the construction site, perform specific technical or administrative functions for the Contracting Officer, as defined in the COR Delegation signed by the Contracting Officer and the Contractor. Under no circumstances shall any direction, guidance, or other communication, expressed or implied by any architect, engineer, consultant, or VA employee other than the Contracting Officer conflict with or change contract requirements, and then only when done in writing.

7. Critical Path: The sequence of activities that represents the longest path through a project, which determines the shortest possible duration. By definition, changes to the early start, or late finish of these activities can change the project completion date.

8. Critical Path Activity: Any activity on the critical path in a project schedule.

9. Critical Path Method (CPM): A method used to estimate the minimum project duration and determine the amount of scheduling flexibility on the logical network paths within the schedule model.

10. Day: Unless otherwise specified, a calendar day, noting that in many cases associated with short-term deliverables such as submittal reviews, etc., will be expressed as “business days”, meaning Monday through Friday, excepting for government holidays.

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11. Gantt Chart: A bar chart of schedule information where activities are listed on the vertical axis, start and finish dates are shown on the horizontal axis, and a series of horizontal lines shows the amount of work done or production completed in certain periods of time in relation to the amount planned for those periods.

12. Government Contract Quality Assurance: Means the various functions, including inspection, performed by the Government to determine whether a contractor has fulfilled the contract obligations pertaining to quality and quantity.

13. JBVAMC: Jesse Brown Veterans Affairs Medical Center, or Jesse Brown VAMC.

14. Latent Defect: A defect or deficiency in performance or compliance in the contractor’s work that was latent or hidden; not readily visible at the time of inspection; that was not discovered during inspections leading up to Final Acceptance, and therefore by nature excluded from Final Acceptance and even the limits of the warranty term (applicable statute limitations).

15. Major Nonconformance: means a nonconformance, other than critical, that is likely to result in failure of the supplies or services, or to materially reduce the usability of the supplies or services for their intended purpose.

16. Minor Nonconformance: means a nonconformance that is not likely to materially reduce the usability of the supplies or services for their intended purpose, or is a departure from established standards having little bearing on the effective use or operation of the supplies or services.

17. Milestone: A significant point or event in a project, program, or portfolio, occurring along the critical path, reflected as having no time or cost value, graphically depicted as a diamond-shaped object in bar charts, generally indicating the start or completion of a phase, or attainment of an essential resource or activity completion.

18. Patent Defect” means any defect which exists at the time of acceptance and is not a latent defect.

19. Provide: Includes as a minimum:

Supply (and similarly Furnish): Delivering materials, systems, equipment, to the customer which may be commercial off-the-shelf, custom fabricated, pre-assembled, designed, tested, or other activities of value in order to make ready for installation and use;

Install: Management/supervision, labor, misc. materials, and equipment required to complete the construction, assembly, installation, etc. of materials, systems, equipment supplied, including testing and certification, etc. to result in a complete system or project fit for purpose and meeting all customer expectations;

Warranty: Process and procedure for the General Contractor to pay for and deliver management/supervision, materials, labor, and services required in response to materials, systems, equipment, failures to perform as required by the customer with a fixed period of time at no additional cost to the customer. (adapted from CSI Manual of Practice)

20. Schedule Baseline: (or Baseline Schedule) The approved version of a schedule model that can be changed only through formal change control procedures and is used as a basis for comparison to actual results.

21. Substantially Complete: Is determined by VA based on the work meeting all requirements of the contract, which by definition are the requirements for the work to meet its intended purpose. If there is a punch list, and the contractor delays turnover causing the government to begin moving into the space, and either the work or parts of the work are incomplete, or staff must vacate to allow the contractor to complete their work at a later date, even if temporarily, the space by definition is not fit for purpose. Too many contractors fall into the trap of allowing their subcontractors to demobilize

01 42 16 -3 and disengage in the work prior to its completion, and compound this error with failure to deliver complete and compliant closeouts.

When the field and administrative work described in the contract is complete, including fulfillment of punch list items describing deficient and incomplete work, cleanup, certifications, inspections, O&M manuals, as-built drawings, VA maintenance employee orientation and or system-specific training (required of all MEP/FP and biomedical systems work), warranty documents (projecting the start date out to Acceptance and Final Completion, are complete throughout the common and other areas of the building, and all other things necessary for the Government’s access to the premises and occupancy, possession, use for intended purpose and enjoyment thereof, have been completed or obtained, excepting only such minor matters as do not interfere with or materially diminish such access, occupancy, possession, use or enjoyment. While the Government may intermittently or progressively move into or make use of the work (equipment, space, etc.), the contractor shall be allowed reasonable access to it in order to complete deficient or incomplete items during non-business hours.

The Government shall withhold payment for incomplete work equal in value to the projected cost for the Government to perform the work or retain others to complete the work. Upon successful completion of all requirements, the Government shall release withheld funds and issue Acceptance and Final Completion per 52.237-4 Payment by Government to Contractor, at which time the warranty(s) shall commence.

22. Task: Finite or specific parts of an Activity typically performed by one trade, for no more than one or two days, which are often planned and executed with other tasks to form an Activity.

23. VAAR: VA Acquisition Regulations propagated under Title 48, Chapter 8. Reference:

http://www.va.gov/oal/library/vaar/