CBCA 7129

DENIED: December 2, 2021 CBCA 7129 GCC TECHNOLOGIES, LLC, Appellant, v. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, Respondent. Jonathan Williams, Katherine B. Burrows, Eric A. Valle, and Christine Fries of Piliero Mazza PLLC, Washington, DC, counsel for Appellant. Megan Nathan, Kristin Delbridge, and Michael S. Taylor, Office of the General Counsel, Department of Education, Washington, DC, counsel for Respondent. Before Board Judges SHERIDAN and RUSSELL. SHERIDAN, Board Judge. GCC Technologies, LLC (GCC or appellant) appealed a contracting officer’s final decision, which was issued by the Department of Education (DOE), asserting breach of contract and breach of the implied duty of good faith and fair dealing. GCC claimed $160,709.92, plus interest, for unpaid amounts remaining from invoices issued in October, November, and December 2019. The contracting officer’s final decision, dated June 4, 2021, agreed to pay $110,462.63 of this amount but denied the remainder of the claim in the amount of $50,247.29, which remains in dispute and is at issue in this appeal. The case has been submitted for a decision on the basis of the written record pursuant to Board Rule 19 (48 CFR 6101.19 (2020)). The decision is being issued by a panel of two CBCA 7129 2 judges, rather than the usual three, as a consequence of appellant’s election of the accelerated procedure. See 41 U.S.C. § 7106(a) (2018); Board Rule 53(a). The record consists of the complaint and accompanying exhibits, the answer, the appeal file, and the briefs of the parties with attachments. For the reasons stated below, we deny the appeal. Background On September 25, 2009, DOE Federal Student Aid (FSA) awarded blanket purchase agreement (BPA) ED-FSA-09-A-0006 to GCC for acquisition and contract management support services. GCC was to provide support, including, but not limited to, providing assistance in acquisition planning, recommending acquisition strategies and approaches, drafting contract guidelines, providing technical assistance to integrated process teams and source selection or technical evaluation teams, providing business analysis of acquisition approaches and vendor proposals, drafting acquisition documents, and providing specific support under Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) part 42. The BPA was issued under General Services Administration (GSA) Management, Organizational and Business Improvement Services (MOBIS) schedule contract GS-10F-0404R. In relevant part, the BPA says the following about contractor performance and the contracted staffing services: The contractor is expected to have staff available upon award to perform all the work at its location unless otherwise indicated in the Task Order. Specific performance requirements, place of performance, and employee qualifications will be specified in TOs [task orders]. The contractor is expected to maintain a qualified staff capable of performing under this agreement . . . . .... All full-time schedules must provide for 80 hours of work during a two week period. Arrival and departure times must be on the quarter- or half-hour. Part-time employees should establish schedules that are consistent with the hours that they work. All schedules shall provide for a standard 30-minute lunch break (Non-Billable) to be taken between 11:00 am and 2:00 pm. (Emphasis removed and added.) The BPA utilized time-and-materials labor rates. With respect to invoicing, the BPA provides: CBCA 7129 3 At a minimum the following items must be addressed in order for the invoice to be considered “proper” for payment: . . . (4) Description, quantity, unit of measure, unit price, and extended price of the item delivered must agree with the contract or order. . . . (8) Totals must be supported by subtotals and subtotals should be supported by detail, (i.e. documentation for categories of labor, hours performed, unit prices) and deliverables provided. . . . (9) If required by this contract or order, receipts must be provided to support documentation of “other direct costs” (ODCs) or materials. (Emphasis added.) The BPA describes the “Tour of Duty” as: All full time schedules must provide for 80 hours of work during a two week period. . . .