Corrective Action Promised by the Department of Defense and the General Services Administration on Enforcement of the Davis-Bacon Act Labor Standards in Carpet Laying Contracts in Colorado

HRD-77-86 May 13, 1977


Summary

Corrective action was scheduled to be taken to improve the Davis-Bacon Act labor standards enforcement practices by the Fitzsimons Army Medical Center in Colorado and by General Services' Denver regional office. Enforcement of the labor standards for carpetlaying contracts issued between January and August 1976 was examined by interviewing procurement officials and by reviewing records. Subcontractors were visited, and payroll data submitted to, and accepted by, the two agencies were verified against the time and payroll records available at the contractors.

The following violations of the Davis-Bacon enforcement practices were discovered: (1) in some cases subcontractor employees had not been interviewed; (2) subcontractors did not always submit certified weekly payrolls; (3) agencies' reviews of the certified payrolls were ineffective, and the payroll data was not adequately compared with the employee interview data; (4) agency representatives noted that payroll data on employees and data they obtained in employee interviews were in agreement when, sometimes, they were not; (5) a subcontractor's certification of work load was accepted by General Services even though the scope of the work obviously required more workers; (6) the certified payroll records of two subcontractors were in disagreement with the subcontractors' own payrolls and time records; (7) and one prime contractor did not submit, and General Services did not request, certified payrolls for a subcontractor.