§ 915.404-4840 — Considerations affecting fee amounts.

48 CFR § 915.404-4840

• Title: Title 48: Federal Acquisition Regulations System
• Part: Part 915: Contracting by Negotiation
• Source: eCFR (current through Apr 2, 2026)

Text

915.404-4840 Considerations affecting fee amounts.

(a) In selecting final fee amounts for the various factors in 915.404-4840 of this section, the DOE negotiating official will have to make several judgments as discussed in this subsection.

(b) Complexity of a construction project shall be considered by analysis of its major parts. For a project which includes items of work of different degrees of complexity, a single average classification should be considered, or the work should be divided into separate classifications. The following class identifications are appropriate for proper fee determinations.

(1) Class A—Manufacturing plants involving operations requiring a high degree of design layout or process control; nuclear reactors; atomic particle accelerators; complex laboratories or industrial units especially designed for handling radioactive materials.

(2) Class B—Normal manufacturing processes and assembly operations such as ore dressing, metal working plant and simple processing plants; power plants and accessory switching and transformer stations; water treatment plants; sewage disposal plants; hospitals; and ordinary laboratories.

(3) Class C—Permanent administrative and general service buildings, permanent housing, roads, railroads, grading, sewers, storm drains, and water and power distribution systems.

(4) Class D—Construction camps and facilities and other construction of a temporary nature.

(c) Normal management elements of principal tasks relating to a construction contract cover several categories of tasks with differing rates of application throughout the construction period. The principal elements of management effort are outlined in this paragraph. Although each project has a total management value equal to 100% for all elements, the distribution of effort among the various elements will be different for each project due to differences in project character or size. The basic management elements and the normal range of efforts expected to apply for a normal sized project are as follows. When the normally expected effort will not be performed by a contractor, this fact should be considered in arriving at appropriate fee amounts.

Management elements	Effort range
	Minimum	Maximum
I. Broad project planning. Overall project planning and scheduling, establishment of key project organization and consultation with the A-E and DOE. Performed by highest level of contractor's officers, technical personnel and project manager	15	25
II. Field planning. Mobilization and demobilization of top field organization from the contractor's existing organization and from other sources as necessary. Detailed project planning and scheduling for construction of facilities. Performed by the project manager and top field professional staff	18	28
III. Labor supervision. Direct supervision of manual employees. Performed by contractor's subprofessional staff, such as superintendents and foremen (some salaried and some hourly rate). This includes the contractor's personnel to coordinate and expedite the work of Subcontractors	12	16
IV. Acquisition and subcontracting. Acquisition of other than special equipment. Selection of subcontractors and execution and administration of subcontracts. Performed by contractor's staff under supervision and direction of elements I and II	12	16
V. Labor relations and recruit-ment (manual). Performed by the contractor's staff under supervision and direction of elements I, II and III. This includes demobilization of work forces	7	11
VI. Recruitment of supervisory staff. Staffing required to supplement the organization under elements I and II, and demobilization during completion of the project. Performed by contractor's permanent staff and recruitment personnel under supervision and direction of management elements I and II	4	6
VII. Expediting. Expediting contracting performed by contractor's staff and by subcontractors. Performed by contractor's staff under supervision and direction of elements I and II	4	6
VIII. Construction equipment operations. This includes mobilization and demobilization. Performed by contractor's staff under supervision, direction and coordination of elements I, II, and IV	4	6
IX. Other services. Timekeeping, cost accounting, estimating, reporting, security, etc., by the contractor's staff under supervision and direction of elements I and II	4	6

(d) Fee considerations dealing with the duration of a project are usually provided by the consideration given to the degree of complexity and magnitude of the work. In only very unusual circumstances should it be necessary to separately weight, positively or negatively, for the period of services or length of time involved in the project when determining fee levels.

(e) The size of the operation is to a considerable degree a continuation of the complexity factor, and the degree and amount of work required to be performed by and with the contractor's own resources. Generally, no separate weighting, positively or negatively, is required for consideration of those factors.

(f) The degree and amount of work required to be performed by and with the contractor's own resources affect the level of fees. Reasonable fees should be based on expectations of complete construction services normally associated with a construction or construction management contract. In the case of a construction contract, reduced services can be in the form of excessive subcontracting or supporting acquisition actions and labor relations interfaces being made by the government. If an unusual amount of such work is performed by other than the contractor, it will be necessary to make downward adjustments in the fee levels to provide for the reduction in services required.

(g) The type of contract to be negotiated and the anticipated contractor cost risk shall be considered in establishing the appropriate fee objective for the contract.

(h) When a contract calls for the contractor to use its own resources, including facilities and equipment, and to make its own cost investment (i.e., when there is no letter-of-credit financing), a positive impact on the fee amount shall be reflected.

[63 FR 56851, Oct. 23, 1998, as amended at 74 FR 36364, July 22, 2009. Redesignated and amended at 89 FR 89750, Nov. 13, 2024]