Pete Dawley
Fleet Sales Manager, Benson CDJ
c/o John Schmidt
Schmidt & Copeland
1201 Main Street, Suite 1100
Columbia, SC 29201
Dear Mr. Dawley:
I write in response to your email and letter dated December 8, 2014, in which you ask FTA to determine whether, due to inadvertent or clerical error, you should be allowed to correct the Buy America certificate you submitted to Charlotte Area Transit System along with your bid to perform work on contract ITB 269-20140206002 for minivans.
FTA cannot allow you to re-certify in this instance. Under the Buy America regulations, which implement 49 U.S.C. § 5323(j), a bidder or offeror who has submitted an incorrect certificate of noncompliance through inadvertent or clerical error may request that it recertify. 49 C.F.R. § 661.13(b)(l). However, the regulations specifically state that inadvertent or clerical error does not include a situation where the bidder or offeror submits certificates of both compliance and non-compliance. Id. Based upon your December 8, 2014 letter, you prepared and submitted two conflicting certifications. Because the Buy America requirements prohibit re-certification under these circumstances, FTA cannot allow you to re-certify here.
Please contact Assistant Chief Counsel for General Law Cecelia Comito at 202-3 66-221 7 or cecelia.comito@dot.gov, if you have further questions.
Sincerely,
Dana Nifosi
Acting Chief Counsel