Common use of Negotiations and Task Issuance Clause in Contracts

Negotiations and Task Issuance. (a) Based upon the contents of the Contractor’s proposal, the Contractor and the Government shall negotiate the number of hours and labor mix required to complete the task order, any changes in the scope of the work to be performed, the schedule, or the deliverables to be provided in the task order. (b) Negotiation will take place at a time and place designated by the Government (possibly by telephone). The skills, specific education/experience of personnel, estimated hours, and other direct costs will be negotiated on each task order. The Government reserves the right to require specific experience and/or educational requirements in order to meet the requirements of the individual task order. Within two (2) business days following negotiations, the Contractor shall submit a finalized proposal reflecting the results of the negotiations. A task order may be issued without negotiations based on the acceptability of the task proposal. (c) Upon the conclusion of all negotiations and evaluation of task proposals, the Contracting Officer will issue a task order. The order(s) will reference both the SOW and the Contractor’s proposal and must be executed by the Contracting Officer before work may commence. Upon signature of the Contracting Officer, each task order is considered fully executed, binding, and ready for implementation. Each task order will be forwarded to the Contractor (generally by e- mail and/or facsimile, followed by regular mail). (d) Following execution of the task order, technical clarifications may be issued in writing at any time by the COR to amplify, or provide additional guidance to the Contractor regarding performance of the task order. The Contractor shall notify the Contracting Officer of any instructions or guidance the Contractor considers to be a change to the task order which will impact the cost, schedule, or deliverables content of the baseline work plan. In cases where technical instructions or other events may dictate a change from the baseline, task orders may be formally modified in writing by the Contracting Officer. The modification/change shall be formalized by issuance of a written modification to the task order, and the contract modified, if applicable. No changes may take place without written approval of the Contracting Officer. The Contractor is responsible for revising the work plan to reflect task order modifications within five (5) working days following negotiation or issuance of a modification of the task order. (e) Task orders may be placed during the period of performance of the contract, as identified in Section F.2. Labor rates applicable to hours expended in performance of an order will be the contract rates that are in effect at the time the task order is executed. Any order issued during the period of performance of this contract and not completed within that time shall be governed by the contract terms to the same extent as if the order were completed during the contract's period of performance, including the contract and individual order ceiling prices. Work performed on such orders after the end of the contract's period of performance will continue to be charged at the last effective rates. (f) All provisions of this contract will apply to each task order executed. The following specific conditions will also apply: 1. All task orders must be accounted for separately. They will ordinarily be of a completion type unless they are for services, which cannot with certainty be estimated before award. In those cases, professional staff hours to be furnished will be set forth with not-to- exceed ceilings specified. 2. In order to accommodate urgent program requirements, the Contracting Officer may give the Contractor oral, facsimile or written notice to proceed on a specific requirement in advance of issuing a formal task order. Any such orders will be followed by a written task order as soon as practicable. 3. Work on task orders shall commence no later than seven (7) calendar days from the task order issuance date or a mutually agreed upon date.