The Veterans Health Administration's (VHA) has 50 major medical-facility projects under way, including new construction and the renovation of existing medical facilities, at a cost of more than $12 billion.
Earlier this month, in testimony before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, Committee on Veterans Affairs, House of Representatives, Lorelei St. James, Director of Physical Infrastructure for the GAO made note of significant scheduling and cost overruns. She had a suggestion ....
Ms. St. James:
Federal regulations12 and agency guidance13 state that change orders must be made promptly, and that there be sufficient time allotted for the government and contractor to agree on an equitable contract adjustment. VA officials at the sites we visited stated that change orders that take more than a month from when they are initiated to when they are approved can result in schedule delays, and officials at two federal agencies that also construct large medical projects told us that it should not take more than a few weeks to a month to issue most change orders.14 However, officials at two sites, New Orleans and Orlando, said that it was common for VA to take 6 months to process a change order, even though VA has directed its staff to eliminate or minimize delays.15 Processing delays may be caused by the difficulty involved in VA’s and contractors’ coming to agreement on the costs of changes and the multiple levels of review required for many of VA’s change orders.In April 2013, we recommended that the Secretary of VA issue and take steps to implement guidance on streamlining the change-order process based on the findings and recommendations of the Construction Review Council.16 VA concurred with our recommendation and was reviewing the options proposed by the Construction Review Council to streamline the change- order process.
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