A Primer on Government Contract Claims

ORGANIZATION ORDER NO. 9

PART VI. CONTRACT APPEALS BOARD, D. C.

A. There is established a Contract Appeals Board, D. C., consisting of one or morc Assistant Corporation Counsel designated by the Corporation Counsel, one of whom shall serve as Chairman of the Board, and two or more persons appointed or designated by the Commissioner from among officers assigned to the Corps of Engineers and detailed to assist the Commissioner pursuant to Sec. 503 (b) of Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1967, or from among active or retired District of Columbia officers and employees who have had practical experience in the administration of government contracts. Except as otherwise provided by its rules, all business of the Board shall be conducted by panels of not less than three members at least one of whorn shall be an Assistant Corporation Counsel member, but any two members of a panel shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of any business of the Board.

No person shall serve as a member of a panel in the decision of any case in which the appeal has been taken from the action of a Contracting Officer or Alternate Contracting Officer of the department of which he is, or at the time of his retirement was, the Director or an employee, or in which he has participated directly in any aspect of the award or administration of the contract involved.

B. The functions of the Contract Appeals Board shall be to hear, to review, and to decide upon all protests and appeals from actions by Contracting Officers where the Contracting Officer is unable to satisfy the Contractor that the action taken was a proper action, and `such other contractual appeals, or classes thereof, as the Commissioner may from time to time order. Upon request of the Contractor or of the Contracting Officer, and with the consent of the other, the subject matter of an appeal shall be remanded to the Contracting Officer, who shall thereupon reconsider his appealed decision, and upon such remand the appeal shall be dismissed. The decision of the Contract Appeals Board in every case shall be final subject to such limitations and review as may be provided by law.

C. The Contract Appeals Board is authorized to prescribe rules of practice and procedure, including the establishment of time limitations and the development of methods of perfecting appeals to it.

D. The Chairman of the Contract Appeals Board shall, from time to time, assign members to panels of the Board, shall be responsible for

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obtaining the necessary secretarial assistance for the Board and for maintaining centralized custody over all records of the Board, and may, from time to time, designate a member to serve as acting chairman during his own absence, disqualification or disability.

E. The activities of the Board shall be considered investigations or examinations of municipal matters within the meaning of the Act of July 1, 1902 (D. C. Code, 1967 cd., Scc. 1-237), and the members of said Board shall possess the powers vested in the Commissioners by said Act of July 1, 1902.