The following are contractor selection/debarment guidelines that you may wish to consider as you proceed with prequalification or periodic review of your contractors.Contractor Misrepresentation.
Any contractor who is willing to lie about their qualifications, in our view and experience, is entirely disreputable, untrustworthy and most certainly will lie about other contract matters. Request contractors to divulge their complete OSHA violation history for at least the five year period preceding anticipated contract award. They should provide either a summary or actual copies of all OSHA citations issued during the period. Once received, their data should be cross-referenced with our OSHA Compliance History Report. Any omissions should be considered as material misrepresentation of their qualifications. If permitted by state or local laws, falsifying prequalification submittals may be used to disqualify or debar the contractor. Check with your legal department for specific guidance.
Willful Violations.
Willful violations are defined as knowingly, intentionally and purposefully disregarding an OSHA standard. These types of violations are not alleged cavalierly by the government and issuance generally must be approved by the OSHA Regional Administrator. If a contractor has a record of any willful violations during a period of at least five years prior to anticipated contract award, and the violation has become a final order (i.e. the case is closed), we recommend they be disqualified.
Repeat Violations.
Repeat violations are issued by OSHA whenever a compliance officer, upon inspection of a worksite, finds substantially similar violations to those found on prior inspections of any worksite in the country under the control of the cited employer. Similar to willful violations, if these violations are found in closed cases during the search period, the contractor should be disqualified.
Failure-to-Abate Penalties.
FTA penalties are issued by OSHA whenever a compliance officer performing a follow-up inspection of a worksite finds that a previously cited condition has not been corrected. FTA penalties are not subject to judicial review therefore any assessment of these penalties indicates a lack of regard for worker safety.
Violations in Expertise Areas.
Contractors who hold themselves out to be experts in certain areas, for example - asbestos, should have very few if any violations of the vertical OSHA asbestos standards in either general industry (29 CFR 1910.1001), construction (29 CFR 1926.1101 redesignated from 1926.58) or any 18(b) state plan that has standards specifically addressing asbestos. If a substantial number of violations do exist and they have been administratively classified by OSHA as "serious," disqualification should be considered.
Complaint Inspections.
Contractors with a history of numerous OSHA inspections initiated on the basis of employee complaints should be requested to provide a satisfactory written explanation. Although employees frequently abuse the rights afforded to them under federal law by filing unfounded or retaliatory OSHA complaints against their employers, an excess number of complaint inspections suggests poor management style, labor/management strife (which can cause a delay in project completion), unwillingness to address worker safety issues or perhaps a truly unsafe workplace.
Unpaid Penalties.
Unpaid penalties for OSHA violations which have become final orders suggests a willingness to disregard the law and/or financial instability. This information should be evaluated in relation to your existing credit or financial policies.
Preferential Consideration.
Contractors that demonstrate exemplary safety and health performance should be given preferential consideration in the award of publicly funded contracts. Exemplary performance may take the form of approval by OSHA into one of their Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP), three or more consecutive "programmed-planned" OSHA inspections with no "serious" violations, or participation in the National Safety Council’s organizational Occupational Safety/Health Award Program. We recommend preferential contractors be given an allowance of 10% over the lowest contract bid amount.
Copyright 1997 OSHA DATA (tm), Maplewood, NJ.
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