Government Contracts Monitor

No Contracting Authority Means No Contract With the Government

August 16, 2012

Recently the Civilian Board of Contract Appeals dismissed an appeal filed by a contractor that performed over a quarter million dollars of emergency restoration services to a Veterans Administration hospital in Philadelphia because the contract documents the contractor performed under were executed by an agency employee without contracting authority.

The case, CPR Restoration, LLC, v. Department of Veterans Affairs, CBCA No. 2735, was decided on May 3, 2012.  On March 17, 2010, a fire occurred in the work area of a construction contractor to the VA in Philadelphia.  Water and other damage occurred, and the construction contractor utilized the appellant to perform restoration and cleaning services.  The appellant provided three documents in support of its claim that it has a valid contract for the work.  The Board held that the government employee that signed the “contract” with the appellant “lacked authority to enter into contracts on behalf of the agency” because the employees were not contracting officers, didn’t have a warrant, and were not in the purchasing department.

The Contracting Officer denied the Appellant’s claim for $279,363, stating that the appellant contracted with the construction contractor, not the agency. The Board dismissed the appeal, holding that because the “contracts” at issue were signed by employees without contracting authority, the appellant did not have an express or an implied contract with the agency. Thus, the appellant had no ability to seek relief from the Board.

This case shows that you should check, double check, and triple check that your “contract” with the government is a real one from a contracting officer with actual authority to bind the government before you perform any work, much less $279,363 of work.  If not, you may be simply out of luck, and may have to file a private lawsuit, which will likely be more difficult to pursue.

 

Brian Stolarz is the attorney responsible for the content of this article.