Failure to Acknowledge Wage Rate Amendment

Failure to Acknowledge Wage Rate Amendment

Generally, the failure to acknowledge a wage rate amendment requires rejection of the bid. However, the GAO decision in Brutoco Engineering & Construction, Inc., B – 209098, 62 Comp. Gen. 111(1983) holds that the failure to acknowledge a wage rate amendment may be acknowledged prior to award, provided that the “employees in question are in fact covered by a contract that legally binds the employer/bidder to pay wages not less than the Secretary of Labor’s minimum wage rate determination…”

The GAO recognized, in Brutoco, supra, that, as a practical matter the rights of the employees were protected through the contractual relationship of the employees’ union and the employer/bidder and that the employees were therefore protected from the evils the Davis – Bacon Act was designed to prevent. Accordingly, the GAO stated that it “did not see how the bidder really could refuse to acknowledge the wage rate amendment after bid opening by claiming it did not intend to pay the wages set forth in it.”

See also Matter of: Bilt – Rite Contractors, Inc., B – 259106, 95 – 1 CPD ¶ 220 ( Comp. Gen. Apr. 25, 1995).

Updated: August 2, 2018