4. REQUIREMENTS. a. The number and types of positions for DOE M&O and other facility management contractor employees located in the Washington, D.C., area must be within approved Headquarters program, site office or M&O or other facility management contractor staffing plan ceilings. b. At the request of a Headquarters program or site office, the Head of the Contracting Activity (HCA) or designee may authorize DOE M&O and other facility management contractors to assign employees to positions in the Washington, D.C., area, provided those positions conform to one or more of the following conditions. (1) Employees provide a Headquarters program or site office with technical expertise and experience in the Washington, D.C., area, that is critical to that office's operation or program(s) when that expertise and experience is not otherwise available at lower cost through other types of contracts (e.g., support service contracts). (2) Employees undertake tasks that must be performed in the Washington, D.C., area because staff must coordinate or interface in person with Headquarters staff or other agencies or because such assignments can be demonstrated to be cost effective for performance of the task. (3) Employees provide administrative support to a M&O or other facility management contractor's Washington, D.C., office. The number and types of administrative support staff must be based on good business practices and approved by the HCA or designee. (4) Employees, other than administrative support staff, provide technical expertise within the mission and scope of work of the contract under which the assignments are made. c. Assignment of DOE M&O and other facility management contractor employees to the Washington, D.C., area must not adversely affect the contractor's mission or otherwise adversely affect the contractor's ability to meet contract commitments. d. DOE M&O and other facility management contractor employees shall not be assigned to the Washington, D.C., area to (1) compensate for reductions in support service contracting; (2) provide administrative support (e.g. clerical or para professional) within Federal facilities or for Federal employees; (3) perform functions inherently reserved for Federal employees, including directly supervising Federal employees and making fiscal and/or policy decisions; (4) perform assignments that exceed 12 months in duration unless the individual's continued assignment is critical and represents significant mutual benefit to the program sponsor and the facility; (5) perform contractor business development or lobbying; (6) extend support beyond the completion of the work assignments; or (7) perform any function that may be construed as a personal or organizational conflict of interest as referenced in DEAR Subpart 909.5 or 970.0905 and defined in 952.209-72. e. DOE M&O and other facility management contractors are not to award subcontracts, or subcontract work tasks, to provide direct support to program offices in the Washington, D.C., area. f. DOE M&O and other facility management contractor employee work assignments performed in the Washington, D.C., area must conform to the relevant program or site office critical skills staffing plan or the contractor's Washington, D.C., office staffing plan. The process required for establishing staffing requirements (see Attachment 3) is as follows. (1) Each Headquarters program or site office that uses M&O and other facility management contractor employees within the Washington, D.C., area will submit, by May 1, an annual critical skills staffing plan (see Attachment 4) to the Director, OMBE, or Headquarters personnel officer, NNSA, as appropriate. Site office plans must be approved and forwarded through the HCA and the Cognizant Secretarial Officer (CSO). These plans should list the employees who provide direct support to program organizations sponsoring the assignments. Plans are required to; (a) delineate the name and the job description including the required skills and expertise to be provided by each contractor employee who will be reimbursed with Departmental funds, (b) include a proposed ceiling for the number of contractor staff to be assigned during the next fiscal year, (c) provide total estimated monthly cost (including all indirect costs) for each assignment, (d) detail the percentage of time charged for each assignment to a Headquarters program organization(s). If an assignment supports more then one program office, the plan should indicate the percentage of support provided to each program with the aggregate total equaling 100 percent, (e) identify the facility providing the employee, and (f) include estimated start and end dates for each assignment, (g) include the site location for each assignment (h) identify the program being supported (e.g. basic energy science). (2) If the HCA or designee determines a M&O or other facility management contractor may establish a Washington, D.C., staff office, the HCA or designee will develop and submit through the CSO an administrative/overhead staffing plan (see Attachment 5) to the Director, OMBE, or Headquarters personnel officer, NNSA, as appropriate. The plan is to be submitted by April 1 and list contractor employees performing work for the M&O or other facility management contractor's Washington D.C., office. M&O and other facility management contractor staffing plans are required to; (a) delineate the following positions that are located at the contractor's Washington office and the costs of which are reimbursed by the Department including; 1 all administrative, office support, and overhead positions and 2 any positions that ensure efficient task performance but do not support specific program offices. (b) The plan will also indicate the program account each assignment is charged against and the proposed staffing ceiling for the next fiscal year. (3) The Director, OMBE, or the Headquarters personnel officer, NNSA, as appropriate, will consult with affected organizations to establish ceiling numbers for each Headquarters program, site, and contractor staff office based on the total number of assignments requested via staffing plans and Congressional report language which limits the total number of assignments permitted DOE-wide. The ceilings are to be approved by the Deputy Secretary, DOE, with concurrence by the Director, OMBE, or the Headquarters personnel officer, NNSA, as appropriate, by August 1 of each year. NNSA Headquarters personnel officer and OMBE will distribute approved allocation notifications to appropriate offices. (a) DOE program and site offices are responsible for meeting the criteria for assignments and for remaining within approved staffing plan ceilings. (b) Each M&O and other facility management contractor must operate within its approved staffing plan ceiling. g. Any DOE Headquarters program, site, or contractor staff office facing a critical need to exceed its ceiling may request a waiver from the Deputy Secretary, DOE. All waiver requests must be concurred in by the Director, OMBE, before submission to the Deputy Secretary, DOE. For requests from NNSA organizations, concurrence of the Headquarters personnel officer, NNSA, is also required. The request must include the following information; (1) justification for modifying the staffing plan and a list of the critical work task(s) that can not be performed by currently assigned contractor employees, (2) the start and end dates for the work assignments requiring the waiver, (3) the organizational subcomponent (or other organization or contractor) to which the employee will provide services, (4) the physical location of the facility contractor employee assignments, and (5) an explanation of how the facility contractor employee assignments are cost effective. h. All assignments of M&O and other facility management contractor employees to the Washington, D.C., area require the authorization of the HCA or designee. Procedures for approving assignments these employees in the Washington, D.C., area must, at a minimum, meet the requirements of this order and DOE's Work Authorization Process. The required procedures (illustrated in Attachment 6) must include the following. (1) The DOE Headquarters program or site office, in concert with the M&O or other facility management contractor and the DOE HCA or designee, develops a work authorization statement showing the required skills mix, scope of work, estimated duration of assignments/needs, reporting requirements, funding source, and any other information required for a work authorization. (2) The DOE Headquarters program or site office must certify that Washington, D.C., employee assignments conform with its staffing plan and are within its ceiling allocation. (3) The contractor informs the cognizant DOE contracting officer or designee of the personnel qualified and available to be assigned. (4) The DOE contracting officer or designee examines the work authorization statement to ensure assignments will not adversely affect the M&O or other facility management contractor's performance. The DOE contracting officer or designee or the Headquarters program organization will update the database that has been established to maintain a current inventory of assignments in the Washington, D.C., area. i. The DOE contracting officer or designee or the Headquarters program office, contingent on the approval by the HCA or the HCA's designee of a new employee assignment to the Washington, D.C., area or upon the expiration of an existing assignment, enters the appropriate changes into the OMBE M&O and other facility management contractor employee database, within 30 days of such change becoming effective. ]]>
Subparagraph 4b(1). We recommend that a sentence be added to indicate that the program office justify that no expert or expertise exists within Headquarters and/or a contractor's existing headquarters office, if any. Additionally, we recommend that the contractor should demonstrate the cost effectiveness of the D.C. assignment by providing a cost benefit analysis between: 1) what it would cost the contractor employee both to telecommute and to travel back and forth to Washington, D.C. with temporary housing during the needed stay and 2) obtaining off-site allowances paid to the contractor while assigned in the D.C. area, allowances that are ensured to be reasonable and consistent with private industry practices.

Subparagraph 4d(6). Add the following at the end of the sentence: 'Each Headquarters program office should clearly define the anticipated length of the work assignment with a start and end date. Both the DOE program office and the DOE M&O and other facility management contractors need to carefully monitor the work being performed to ensure the assignment is discontinued once the initial work assignment has been completed.']]>