Government Liable for $99 Million in Indemnification Under Government Contracts
Client Alert | 1 min read | 01.26.17
In Shell Oil Co. et al. v. U.S. (Jan. 6, 2017), the Court of Federal Claims held that the U.S. Government was liable for over $99 million in breach of contract damages when it “reneged on contractual promises” to indemnify several oil companies under a Taxes Clause for certain costs incurred as a result of environmental damage arising out of WWII-era contracts for the production of military aviation gas (see previous discussion here and here). The decision, which may encourage other contractors to pursue recovery under similar contract provisions such as “hold harmless” clauses in facilities contracts, and indemnification clauses authorized under Public Law 85-804, admonished the Government that the damages included “$30,991,111.02 in interest which the U.S. taxpayers could have avoided paying, if the Government had lived up to its obligations, instead of wasting years in litigation.”
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Client Alert | 4 min read | 10.30.26
Recent sustain decisions by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) in Fluor Federal Solutions, LLC and Reliance Test & Technology send a clear message: when an agency tries to fix a Procurement Integrity Act (PIA) violation by committing a second one, the cure can be just as fatal as the disease. The cases involved the U.S. Air Force’s $1.8 billion procurement for O&M services at Elgin Air Force Base. During discussions, the Air Force inadvertently released a pricing overview slide with all offerors’ bottom-line evaluated costs to Reliance Test & Technology, which immediately notified the agency of the error. In response, the Air Force decided to level the playing field by providing the same information to all the other offerors in the procurement, stating, “[o]fferors may consider this disclosure in their [final proposal revision].”
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Debriefing to Dead Briefing: How to Avoid Dismissal by Identifying “Required” Debriefings
