The base commander defends cost overruns and praises the swift completion of the foreign officers area.
By PAUL DE LA GARZA
Published June 27, 2003
TAMPA - The base commander at MacDill Air Force Base, Col. David "Tanker" Snyder, on Thursday defended the handling of a construction project at Central Command in preparation for war with Iraq.
Snyder said in an interview and in a letter to the St. Petersburg Times that the expansion of Coalition Village to provide temporary office space for foreign military officers was accomplished quickly as war loomed. He defended the way the contract was handled and said he believed no laws were broken.
"The success story is that it was done on time," Snyder said in an interview. "I'm told it was within (federal regulations)."
The Times reported this week that the 6th Contracting Squadron may have violated federal law by agreeing to spend money it did not have to build temporary office space for foreign military officers at CentCom. A review of hundreds of e-mails among MacDill officials and other documents indicated that the cost rose more than four times the original contract and that additional work was done without a written contract or an agreement on price.
In February, MacDill awarded the contract to expand Coalition Village in CentCom's parking lot to Resun Leasing Inc. of Brandon for $111,000. Because of a math error, the initial award was later adjusted to $142,755.
After it finished the job, Resun submitted a bill to MacDill for an additional $467,000. Resun says company supervisors were orally told to expand the project without regard to cost.
The documents also indicate base officials monitoring the construction site were not authorized to negotiate changes to the original contract.
On April 29, Dennis Fuentes, a contracting official at MacDill, alerted a colleague about problems with the contract. "As of this date, I am outside of the Federal Acquisition Regulations," he wrote. "We need to bring this contract back in line."
In a letter to the Times on Thursday, Snyder said the government had set aside $329,000 for the project, which covered 14 mobile homes for temporary offices and other improvements.
"Because of Central Command's urgent need to receive our coalition partners and integrate them into the war planning effort, we proceeded under the emergency provisions of the Federal Acquisition Regulations," Snyder wrote.
"Using these provisions our base contracting and engineering team were able to complete the trailer city and hand the keys over to arriving coalition members in record time."
Snyder noted that federal law "specifically authorizes streamlining the acquisition process" in preparation for war.
"At no time did the Government violate Federal law," Snyder wrote. "Our funded Government estimate of $329,000 included the basic bid and the capability to cover contractual changes necessary due to the urgent and progressive nature of the project."
After paying the initial bill of $142,755 from that $329,000, Snyder wrote, the rest of the money was used to pay for more work.
The commander said that CentCom officials met twice a week with the 6th Civil Engineering Squadron and the 6th Contracting Squadron "to work out changes to the initial installation of mobile trailers."
In an interview, Snyder characterized the project, known as Coalition Village II, as "a success story." But he said he could not comment on whether it was proper for MacDill officials to authorize changes orally as Resun has alleged. Snyder said he was reviewing the contract.
Snyder's two-page letter raised several questions.
The federal regulations Snyder cited, for example, govern "competition requirements" to shortcut the bid process. They do not address oral requests for contract changes without written authorization, which Resun said it relied upon to continue working.
The additional bill Resun submitted is nearly double the $329,000 MacDill said it budgeted for the expansion. The original bid of $142,000, plus the $467,000 in extra work, totals $609,000.
According to the letter, MacDill has validated $134,000 in payments toward the additional $467,000 sought by Resun. MacDill officials are reviewing other charges.
"As stated in the article," Snyder's letter said, "much of this validation hinges on the vendor providing necessary documentation to substantiate his cost proposal and we await his response."
Resun officials said Thursday they had no more documents to submit to MacDill.
