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More News Headlines
Stimulus Funds Create Hoops For Contractors
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
By Bill Caton
 | |
| Katherine Lynn | |
Contractors planning to bid school work funded by Stimulus Package funds will have additional requirements to contend with, including getting a DUNS number, registering with the Central Contracting Registration and complying with the Buy American Act.
So said Alabama Building Commission Director Katherine Lynn during a March speech to the Dothan Section.
Ms. Lynn also said that contractors will have to deal with the Davis Bacon act and provide certified payrolls.
“Our inspectors will be going to jobsites,” she said. “We have asked architects to incorporate the wage rate in their information. Please don’t send me boxes of certified payroll. We have a five page memo on our website so architects can take those supplemental instructions and include them.”
The Building Commission web address is: www.bc.alabama.gov. The instructions are on the home page and are titled: Additional Instructions for Contracts Funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) (see forms).
Ms. Lynn said contractors should pay close attention to these requirements because “this is the first year we’ve had federal stimulus funds.”
She also reminded AGC members that change orders must be “signed and processed before a pay request can be paid.”
“I also have to have signed contracts and approved plans,” Ms. Lynn said. She said she has had pay requests on jobs that had been built without approved plans and signed contracts.
The Building Commission has not had as many requests for dispute resolution, but “we may see more of that as current jobs finish,” Ms. Lynn said. “We have seen more contractors defaulting on payment. I am required to tell vendors (who ask) if contractors have been paid.”
She said the commission continues to see problems with the sales tax savings rule. In January the Department of Revenue created a new form where a contractor designates his payer and the Building Commission is considering adopting the same form. Ms. Lynn reminded contractors that they and their subs have to be designated purchasing agents to get the savings.
Ms. Lynn also told the group that the Building Commission workload has doubled and that is going to get worse in the near term as the state experiences a push to get allocated money spent on schools before the end of this fiscal year.