AEPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of
Solid Waste and
Emergency Response
Publication 9242.2-11FS
EPA 540/F-94/062
PB95-963216
May 1995
Superfund Response
Action Contracts
Office of Emergency and Remedial Response
Hazardous Site Control Division, 5203G
Quick Reference Fact Sheet
The Response Action Contracts (RACs) provide professional architect/engineer services to the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) to support response planning and oversight of activities under the Comprehensive Environ-
mental Response Compensation and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA) as amended by the Superfund Amendments and
Reauthorization Act of 1986 (SARA). These contracts are being procured as the Regions deplete the capacity of their
existing Alternative Remedial Contracting Strategy (ARCS) contracts. The purpose of this fact sheet is to provide general
information about the RACs.
SERVICES PROVIDED
Services provided by RACs include:
program support (management);
remedial investigation and feasibility studies;
engineering services to design remedial actions;
engineering evaluations and cost analyses for
non-time-critical removal actions;
construction management for implementing re-
medial actions and non-time-critical removal
actions, including issuing and managing subcon-
tracts for construction of the selected remedy,
and engineering services for construction over-
sight;
enforcement support, including oversight of re-
medial investigations/feasibility studies, reme-
dial designs, and remedial actions, and negotia-
tion support; and
other technical assistance, including community
relations, sampling and analytical support, and
pre-design investigations.
Services also may include technical and management
services supporting EPA's coordination and/or over-
sight of remedial activities performed by a State, the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, or responsible parties
identified in enforcement actions. RAC services do
not include Federal facilities oversight.
SUPERFUND'S LONG-TERM
CONTRACTING STRATEGY
The procurement of RACs implements the long-term
cleanup contracting component of the EPA's Long-
Term Contracting Strategy (OSWER Directive 9242.6-
07FS). This strategy prescribes an integrated "one-pro-
gram" approach to enforcement and site cleanup and
decentralizes contract management to the EPA Regions
to enhance program flexibility and improve contract
oversight and cost management. The RACs supplement
and eventually will replace the ARCS contracts. The
RACs also integrate enforcement oversight and non-
time critical removal activities previously performed
under the EPA's Technical Enforcement Support and
Emergency Response Cleanup Services contracts, re-
spectively. The Agency expects to reduce handoffs,
promote program integration, and give the Regions
flexibility to pursue various enforcement options through
this one-program approach.
CONTRACT TYPE AND STRUCTURE
RACs are cost-plus-award-fee contracts. The base per-
iod of performance is five years, with one five-year
option period that can be exercised at the discretion of
the government, for a potential contract period of ten
years. The RAC statement of work specifies work areas
and tasks within two general categories of activities:
Program Support and Site-Specific Activities. The Re-
gions issue work assignments to order work under RACs.
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STATEMENT OF WORK
The RAC statement of work is a nationally standardized
statement of work developed by the Response Action
Contracting Strategy Work Group for use in all Regions.
The statement of work is presented in a work breakdown
structure format. The work breakdown structure is com-
prised of work areas, tasks, and subtasks. Separate work
assignments are issued for each work area. Tasks and
potential subtask activities for each work area are iden-
tified and described in the statement of work. Subtasks
are specified by the Region in individual work assign-
ments as they are issued.
Work areas are organized into four categories:
Program Support
Site-Specific Fund-Lead
Site-Specific Enforcement Support
Other Site-Specific Technical Assistance
RAC contractors use the work breakdown structure in
the statement of work for project scoping, scheduling,
and technical and cost tracking and reporting. Contrac-
tors are required to track and report activities and costs to
the task level and, if specified in individual work assign-
ments, to the subtask level.
PROGRAM SUPPORT (MANAGEMENT)
The program support (management) component of RACs
includes five work areas:
Mobilization
Equipment (Non-Site-Specific)
Ongoing Administrative Support
Ongoing Technical Support
Contract Closeout
The Regions will issue and negotiate separate work
assignments for these activities. Mobilization and con-
tract closeout are one-time activities; other program
support activities will be ongoing over the period of the
contract. The work assignment for mobilization and
initial work assignment for non-site-specific equipment
are negotiated during contractnegotiations before award.*
Ongoing administrative and technical support work as-
signments are negotiated during mobilization. These
work assignments may extend for the base period of the
contract or may be issued for a shorter period. The
contract closeout work assignment is issued six to eight
months before the end of the contract period. This
approach provides the Regions the flexibility to monitor
and control the program support costs associated with
RACs and complies with the Agency's goal to minimize
and break out program support costs in RACs.
TERM-FORM AND COMPLETION-FORM
WORK ASSIGNMENTS
The Federal Acquisition Regulation describes two
forms of cost-reimbursement contractsterm-form and
completion-form. RACs contain both term-form and
completion-form segments, and term-form or comple-
tion-form work assignments may be issued at EPA's
discretion.
A term-form work assignment obligates the contractor to
devote a specified level of effort for a stated time period
toward achieving a defined objective. The statement of
work is described in general terms and the contractor
provides the specified number of hours on a "best effort"
basis during an agreed-upon time period. Under a term-
form work assignment, the contractor is obligated to
deliver quality labor hours toward a defined objective.
After the issuance of a term-form work assignment, EPA
negotiates with the contractor an estimated work assign-
ment cost and fee pool (calculated according to the
number of direct labor hours to be expended). Perfor-
mance (award) fee is paid based on a subjective govern-
ment evaluation of contractor performance. If the con-
tractor cannot perform the work within the estimated
hours, the government may choose to add hours to the
work assignment Additional fee would be associated
with those hours.
A completion-form work assignment obligates the con-
tractor to complete and deliver a specified end product
(such as a technical report) within the estimated cost of
the work assignment as a condition for fee payment If
the contractor cannot complete the product within the
estimated cost, the government may elect to provide the
contractor with additional funds to complete the work
while the fee remains as originally negotiated. The
completion-form approach, therefore, gives the contrac-
tor an incentive to complete the work assignment within
the estimated cost.
Completion-form wo± assignments are negotiated and
established using the same process as term-form work
assignments, except fee is negotiated based on estimated
cost rather than labor hours. As with term-form work
assignments, if the contractor cannot complete the work
assignment within the estimated cost, the government
may provide additional funds for completion; unlike
term-form work assignments, additional fee usually is
not provided. For both term- and completion-form work
assisgnments, if the work assignment scope of work
changes during the period of performance, the contrac-
tor can claim a "change," which the government may or
may not negotiate to include a change in the fee.
Last-minute changes in EPA policy may affect treatment of equipment in RACs.
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RACs contain a base quantity for the term-form (level of
effort) segment of the contract and dollar ceilings for the
completion-form segment of the contract. The Regions
determine the distribution of work between the two
segments for their contracts. When the base quantity
and/or dollar ceiling is exhausted, the Region can modify
the contract to increase contract quantities or dollars
through exercising contract options. Term-form contract
increases raise the number of hours in the contract.
Completion-form increases raise the completion-form
dollar ceiling.
PERFORMANCE (AWARD) FEE PLAN
The Performance (Award) Fee Plan for RACs estab-
lishes the procedures and processes for administering the
fee provisions of the contract. The RACs Performance
(Award) Fee Plan includes base and performance (award)
fee provisions. Base fee is paid provisionally during the
life of a work assignment. If final work assignment
performance is rated as "satisfactory" or better, the
contractor retains all of the base fee associated with that
work assignment. If final work assignment performance
is rated as "unsatisfactory," the contractor must return to
the government the entire base fee associated with the
work assignment. Performance (award) fee is paid only
for completed work assignments for which the govern-
ment evaluates contractor performance as "exceeds ex-
pectations" or "outstanding." Government evaluations
are unilateral and not subject to contractor dispute.
The RAC Performance (Award) Fee Plan motivates
contractors to exceed Regional expectations by provid-
ing performance (award) fee for better-than-satisfactory
performance and discourages less-than-satisfactory per-
formance through a total loss of fee.
REPORTS
RACs contain nationally standardized reporting and
invoicing requirements that allow data to be compared
across contracts and enhance EPA's oversight capabili-
ties. Both hard copy and electronic reports are required.
The contractor is required to (1) report and invoice on the
same calendar period, (2) calculate data elements used in
reports and invoices by the same methods, and (3)
submit progress reports concurrently with invoices. These
requirements ensure that the government has adequate
information for timely review and approval of invoices.
Progress reports, which allow effective monitoring of
work progress, and national reports, which update EPA
Headquarters on contract status, facilitate contract man-
agement and cost control.
CONTRACT FUNDING
Most RAC funding is bulk funding, which means that the
contract as a whole is funded periodically, according to
the funding categories, as opposed to traditional, indi-
vidual work assignment funding. The bulk-funding cat-
egories in RACs are defined as non-site-specific funding
areas in OSWER Publication 9200.3-14.2, Program
Management Manual. The four bulk-funding categories
are:
Program Support (Other Response)
Site Characterization (non-site-specific "site"
allowance)
Removal
Enforcement
In bulk funding, obligations are not site-specific but
expenditures are. Bulk funds are committed and obli-
gated to the contract using the funding category, a
generic activity code, and a generic site code. The
contractor invoices site-specifically, replacing the ge-
neric activity code and site code with the applicable
activity code and site code specified in the work assign-
ment.
To manage expenditures under individual work assign-
ments, the governmentestablisb.es an "expenditure limit"
for each work assignment issued. The expenditure limit
is expressed in hours and dollars for term-form work
assignments and in dollars for completion-form work
assignments. The contractor can expend work assign-
ment hours and/or dollars up to the work assignment
expenditure limit but cannot exceed the expenditure
limit. Within the bulk-funding approach, the expendi-
ture limit serves as the work assignment funding ceiling
and ensures that the government controls individual
work assignment expenditures.
Some types of work assignments will not be bulk funded.
Remedial action work assignments and completion-
form work assignments will be funded individually on a
site-specific basis.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CALL:
Nancy Ortowski (5203G)
Design and Construction Management Branch
Office of Emergency and Remedial Response
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
401 M Street, S.W.
Washington, DC 20460
(703) 603-8785
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United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Washington, DC 20460
Official Business
Penalty for Private Use
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