Last month a New Jersey contractor filed a lawsuit alleging that the requirement of a project labor agreement on the Scudder Falls Bridge cost the taxpayers of New Jersey and Pennsylvania over $70 million. If the contractor prevails, it could be a major blow to the use of PLAs by government entities. Project labor agreements are often required on public works project to ensure that union contractors are selected for [...]
Iowa subcontractors convinced the Iowa Supreme Court that the Iowa Department of Transportation ("IDOT") should cover unpaid balances the general contractor owed to subcontractors. Although this ruling will only apply to situations where the IDOT has waived the bonding requirement for certain contractors, it’s still a great win for subcontractors. This case, Star Equipment v Iowa, involved the construction of a roadside rest area along Interstate 80. Universal Concrete was [...]
Last month a business owner was convicted in what is being heralded as the largest Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) fraud case in history. The scheme lasted over 15 years and involved over $136 million in government contracts. But, is this simply a story of fraud or does it expose a much larger issue -- a major flaw in the DBE program? The case was filed against Joseph Nagle, the president, [...]
Contractors often complain that while government contracts are good for business, the governmental bureaucracy is oftentimes more hassle than it is worth. A recent decision of the Boards of Contract Appeals and the Comptroller General drives this point home. In this recent situation, a service-disabled veteran-owned small business was the low bidder on a Department of Veteran Affairs project. However, the contracting officer determined that the low bid was unreasonably [...]
Our clients often ask how they can best protect their rights on a public construction project because they know they can’t file a lien. Contractors on public projects must be very careful about protecting their claim because there are very specific steps that must be followed. Nebraska statute section 52-118 contemplates two types of situations--those in which the subcontractor or supplier has a contract with the contractor and those [...]
