REPORT TO THE PRESIDENT ON AGENCY
ADR ACTIVITIES
Pursuant to
the President’s Memorandum on Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), the
Interagency ADR Working Group is required to report to the President on ADR
programs in the executive branch. The results
of this survey will be reported to the President through the director of the
Office of Management and Budget, as well as distributed to Congress and other
interested parties. Please email your
responses to Jeffrey.M.Senger@usdoj.gov, or complete the survey on the Working
Group website at www.financenet.gov/financenet/fed/iadrwg/adrsurvey.htm. (If necessary, you may instead mail it,
including a copy on diskette, to Jeff Senger, United States Department of Justice,
Office of Dispute Resolution, 950 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Room 5240, Washington,
D.C., 20530.) Thank you.
Agency name: Department
of Transportation
Agency
Dispute Resolution Specialist and other ADR points of contact:
Name: Judith S. Kaleta
Telephone: 202‑493‑0992
Email: judy.kaleta@rspa.dot.gov
The
Department’s Dispute Resolution Specialist serves as the Chair of the
Department’s Dispute Resolution Council, which is comprised of the Deputy
Dispute Resolution Specialists in the Department’s operating administrations
and secretarial offices. Those contacts
are listed in Attachment 1 to this survey.
Does your
agency have an ADR policy statement?
Yes _x__ No ___
The
Secretary has issued two declarations of his commitment to ADR. One announcement was internal to the Department,
addressed to heads of operating administrations and secretarial officers. The other was in a press release announcing
the appointment of the Dispute Resolution Specialist and the establishment of
the Department’s Dispute Resolution Council.
In addition, the Department ’s acquisition regulations include a
provision on alternative dispute resolution and the role of the Dispute
Resolution Specialist. 48 C.F.R. § 1233.214.
The Department’s Board of Contracts Appeals rules of procedure provide
two alternative dispute resolution methods to facilitate case settlement:
settlement judges and mini‑trials.
The Federal
Aviation Administration (FAA) announced
commitment to the early and expeditious resolution of controversy in its
Acquisition Management System. In
addition, for complaints of discrimination, the FAA established an alternative
dispute resolution program.
In
Commandant’s Instructions, the Coast Guard established a Solicitation Ombudsman
Program to provide potential offerors an opportunity to resolve complaints and
concerns in an informal manner and established a mediation program to resolve
allegations of discrimination.
What is your
agency’s ADR budget? $__________
If you do
not have a budget, how are your ADR activities funded?
There is no
centralized ADR budget within the Department.
ADR service and activities, including training, travel and mediators,
are funded by the office requesting the service or by the office that employs
the person involved in the dispute. In
addition, employees are taking advantage of no‑cost and low‑cost
training activities of the Interagency ADR Working Group and bar associations.
How many
FTE’s does your agency dedicate to ADR? ___9 ½______
If none, how
are your ADR activities staffed?
The
Department’s Dispute Resolution Specialist and 8 ½ positions within the Federal Aviation Administration are
dedicated to ADR. Sixteen employees
serve on the Department’s Dispute Resolution Council. There are collateral duty mediators who are involved in resolving
EEO complaints. These collateral duty
mediators are located in headquarters and the regional offices.
What
programs has your agency established during FY 1999 pursuant to the
Administrative Dispute Resolution Act and the President’s directive to promote
greater use of ADR?
The
Department has undertaken a number of ADR initiatives in FY 1999.
The
Secretary has established a Dispute Resolution Council, consisting of
representatives from each of the Department’s operating administrations and
secretarial offices. The council will
examine how the department is currently using alternative means of dispute
resolution, both at headquarters and in the regions, and will identify possible
future uses.
The
Department, under its ONE DOT initiative to encourage its administrations to
work more closely together, has been developing a DOT‑wide mediation
program to help resolve Equal Employment Opportunity complaints. The department has trained employees to
serve as neutral mediators to assist in the consensual resolution of those
complaints. We have established a pilot DOT‑wide Sharing Neutrals Program
for the mediation of discrimination complaints
in the Washington, DC area. The
U.S. Coast Guard and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) also established
mediation programs for discrimination complaints.
The FAA also
established two new programs at its William J. Hughes Technical Center in
Atlantic City, N.J., under which employees and management mediate workplace
disputes. One program includes the bargaining
unit employees of the American Federation of Government Employees, Local
200. The other involves the non‑bargaining
unit employees.
The FAA and
the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) established an ADR
Working Group. NATCA represents
approximately 25,000 air traffic employees.
The ADR Working Group will explore the use of joint problem solving
efforts, including the issues and processes appropriate for these efforts.
What ADR
programs has your agency expanded or improved during FY 1999?
The
Secretary of Transportation has appointed a full‑time Dispute Resolution
Specialist. Prior to this appointment,
the functions of the Dispute Resolution Specialist were a collateral duty.
The
Department’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a final rule which
details the procedural requirements for the resolution of both bid protests and
contract disputes. Its dispute resolution process emphasizes the use of ADR as
the primary means to resolve disputes.
The Office of Dispute Resolution for Acquisitions makes its Dispute
Resolution Officers available as ADR neutrals with the concurrence of the
parties. In addition, it established a
web site, which includes a guide to the conduct of protests and contract
disputes and information about specific cases.
The Coast
Guard is continuing to consider alternative means of dispute resolution in
procurement matters. To enhance
employee awareness, the Coast Guard provided training to the chiefs of its
contracting offices and its procurement attorneys.
What
benefits has your agency received from these programs?
In general,
ADR is working to resolve contracting and workplace disputes, resulting in less
adversarial relationships and a better work environment. Employees who have been made aware of ADR
are routinely beginning to see it as a desirable alternative to traditional,
more adversarial approaches and are considering whether ADR may be appropriate
to resolve disputes. The Coast Guard
has experienced a drop in the number of contract protests.
More
specifically, the informal procedures established the FAA’s Office of Dispute
Resolution for Acquisitions save the agency and outside parties time and money
by forcing the parties to focus on the core dispute and by providing expedited
time frames. An analysis, provided as
Attachment 2, illustrates the estimated savings in labor hours from using
default adjudication procedures in lieu of a protest under General Accounting
Office procedures or a case with Board of Contract Appeals.
Other Department‑wide
initiatives are too new to assess at this time. We are developing criteria to help us evaluate their benefits for
FY 2000.
What ADR
success stories does your agency have to share with the President?
Our
successes fall within several areas: design success, implementation success,
and success in resolving disputes.
Design
Success A team of employees from
across the Department worked together to establish a Sharing Neutrals
Program. The neutrals will serve as
collateral duty mediators to resolve discrimination complaints. This approach allows us to use our resources
in the most cost effective manner and instills within our workforce conflict
management techniques.
Implementation
Success The Department’s Board of
Contract Appeals used alternative means of dispute resolution, including mini‑trials
and appointment of an independent neutral, in seven cases. Settlement was
reached in six of the cases.
For
discrimination complaints, the Federal Aviation Administration mediated 123
disputes. Mediation resulted in
resolving 71 of the disputes, 58% of the cases. This resolution rate is up from 43% in 1998. With regard to other workplace issues, one
office within the FAA has established an Early Resolution System and successfully
resolved 16 out of 18 cases.
Success in
resolving a dispute One case that benefitted from the application of ADR involved a
contract for the construction of a power supply upgrade at a Coast Guard
facility. Differing site positions were
encountered and delays extended the contract almost one year beyond the
original completion date. The
contractor filed a claim for approximately $224,000 for extended unabsorbed
overhead expenses. The parties attempted to settle and failed. Both parties presented arguments and
evidence to a settlement judge from the Department’s Board of Contract
Appeals. The settlement judge made
informal recommendations to the parties.
The claim was settled for $70,000.
What are
your agency’s ADR goals, including resources necessary for the future?
Our primary
goal is to publish a notice in the Federal Register which details our
commitment to ADR as part of the Department’s strategic plan. Consistent with our human resources
management strategy to foster a diverse, highly skilled workforce, we will
develop a curricula to enhance awareness of opportunities to use ADR and we
will establish a nation‑wide mediation program to resolve complaints of
discrimination. This latter undertaking
also supports labor‑management partnerships. Consistent with our customer service corporate management
strategy, we will develop ADR program evaluation criteria. In addition, to ensure that customers have
access to timely and accurate information, we will develop an ADR web
site. As we undertake these and other
ADR initiatives, under the leadership of the Department’s Dispute Resolution
Council, we will ensure that fiscal resources are cost‑effectively
allocated.