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Federal Agency Can Reclaim Grant Money if Davis Bacon Standards are Not Met

Recently CCMI was contacted by a Public Agency that was undergoing a federal audit and the Federal Agency wanted the Public Agency to return the federal grant money they received claiming the agency had not followed the Davis Bacon regulations relating to the contract. While this does not happen often, it does happen from time to time, so this is good opportunity to review the basic requirements when your agency receives any type of federal funds. This includes situations when there is both state prevailing and federal prevailing wage.

• Title 29 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Section 5.5 details the specific contract language that needs to be included in every project using federal funds triggering Davis Bacon. You are to include all the language and not incorporate it by reference.
• The applicable wage determination must be included in the solicitation for bid. Again, the full wage determination, no incorporating by reference, although you can give them a direct link to the wage determination.
• 10 days before the bid submission date, the public agency is to verify at wwww.sam.gov whether there are any wage increases since the original wage determination was shared with the bidders list. If yes, then an addendum needs to be issued with the new wage rate. 
• The certified payrolls need to be collected and reviewed. 
• Onsite interview of workers is required periodically and the results of those interview (using form SF 1445 or HUD 11) must be compared with the CPRs.
• If there are violations, then the agency should hold funds until those violations are corrected. Finally, if more than $500 in CHWSSA penalties are imposed, a report to the DOL is required. 
• Using HUD funds may require additional tracking and reporting of Section 3 obligations.

Partial noncompliance for some of these can many times be corrected, but a total disregard of all obligations can result in the grant money being reclaimed at the end of the project. For further help in understanding your federal prevailing wage obligations, contact CCMI at info@ccmilcp.com

Training Opportunities

August 18^th in person training -6 hours What Every Contractor Should Know About Prevailing Wage sponsored by ABC Southern California. For more information or to register, go to:  jthomas@abcsocal.net

August 25^th in person training – 1:30-3:00 p.m. Creating Your Own Prevailing Wage Checklist California Special District Association Annual Conference Palm Dessert. For more information, contact www.csda.net

Aug 28^th ABC San Diego What Every Contractor Should Know About Prevailing Wage all day in person workshop. For more information, go to: www.abcsd.org

October 2^nd in person training – 6 hours Everything You Should Know About Prevailing Wages sponsored by Humboldt Builders Exchange. For more information or to register, contact info@humbx.com

If you need more training, Deborah Wilder is the presenter on the LCPtracker Academy Prevailing wage workshops. Go to www.LCPtracker.com and select the education tab.

Want to schedule your own prevailing wage workshop?

We will customize a workshop or webinar for you and your Agency/Account. Contact us at: info@ccmilcp.com 

ANSWER:  

Routine janitorial work can create a lot of questions. Typically, a business that comes into your offices once a day or once a week and empties the garbage, vacuums, and cleans the restrooms, is easily classified as routine janitorial services. The DIR has also opined that such things as power washing the outside of the building and awnings, is a typical cleaning service that a public agency would engage in once or twice a year, and therefore can be classified as routine janitorial services and not covered by California prevailing wage.

On the other hand, if the building is power washed at the end of construction before being delivered to the Agency. That is covered by California prevailing wage. Also, having the agency's air ducts cleaned is not considered routine janitorial work and triggers California prevailing wage requirements under the classification of Sheet Metal Worker. Best to double check if you are engaging in only occasional “cleaning” or if any of the “cleaning” is connected with the actual final delivery of a construction project.