Dear Anawat / Chawachai
See below growth potential from Charles - can you please advise if we are capable to meet the additional scope?
"Excellent. We have started day 1 at AFRIMS; I anticipate needing other subs for the full scope. Would FMAS like to add to their capabilities, or should I prepare to subcontract those other companies?”
Please also see notes from our meeting with Charles (comments in red):
1. J&J will purchase anything that is not available locally and will ship it to the site. This is not an import-exempt contract, so J&J will take these shipments up with the US government when they are needed.
2. FMAS will purchase anything locally-available after receiving approval from J&J. These approvals and the receipts will be provided to J&J monthly, whereby we will reimburse FMAS for the cost of the material. There will not be a mark-up on materials, as we are not sourcing them through FMAS, and the original vendor receipt must be provided with a cost cover-sheet explaining all expenses in English. - J&V will issue FMAS purchase approval for every item, this will then be reimbursed along with our regular (fixed) invoice at the end of each month.
This is the same process used for accountability and fast materials acquisition on all J&J sites throughout Asia. FMAS will be trained in this process and J&J will provide the necessary forms. If there are any questions, I am always available.
Permits will be on J&J's cost unless they particularly pertain to FMAS as a corporate entity. J&J will assure that we are legitimately established for work at AFRIMS. If FMAS requires training, permits, licenses, etc. We will determine responsibility case-by-case. J&J's assumption through this LOA is that FMAS is 100% ready to operate at AFRIMS (as the incumbent) and meets all present standards. This does not seem like a matter for much worry.
J&J will provide MSDS for all J&J-provided chemicals. Chemicals in use by FMAS or the government on the site prior to J&J's start date of 2/1/16 will not be considered J&J's responsibility, but my team will do our level best to provide SDS documentation for all chemicals we are able to identify. We will work with FMAS to properly dispose of anything that cannot be identified.
J&J will provide all training pertinent to J&J's scope of work. If firefighting is in J&J's scope of work, we will do our best to provide that training. This is to be confirmed once Charles' team have completed the operational audit in 2-3 weeks.
Energy conservation is a standard clause. J&J will be going through all available records and through DMLSS to determine the initial status of the facilities so that we can set improvement goals. We will expect FMAS (as the incumbent) to assist us in gathering and interpreting this historical data.
J&J's CMM will be authorized to accept and approve overtime requests for FMAS. FMAS will only receive instructions from DMLSS and/or J&J's CMM on the site. Direct interaction with the US government and its representatives will be limited to emergency/safety concerns only. This is critical. The US government is not able to commit J&J's resources, meaning that if the government directs FMAS to perform a task that result in J&J being charged outside the confines of our LOA, FMAS might not be paid for that particular extra work. I mention this because this is a big change from the way things worked before. Originally FMAS was working for the government directly. Now FMAS is only working for J&J – I have much experience with this and I know it can be awkward for the staff, so we will do what we can to keep the transition comfortable for everyone.
Lastly, this LOA is only for 3 months for on very important reason. Probation and re-evaluation. The overall length of our expected relationship with FMAS is the full term of the contract. This term is one year and 4 optional years. We will use the first 3 months to allow FMAS to continue as always while my team assesses the site and takes action to elevate operations to J&J's standards. During that process of evaluation, we may determine that we need more services from FMAS – or that we need to change certain provisions. This is more easily done by scheduling a time for a new LOA rather than attempting multiple successive change orders. - CMM’s are authorised to observe / evaluate our performance and will be key to the extension beyond the probationary period, they will likely focus on employee certifications i.e. are they certified to preform the job as per the scope and are they performing tasks out-with their certifications. Being subordinate has also been flagged as a key evaluator i.e. following J&J instructions NOT Afrims.
I will be sending all of this data to our contract specialist in Austin to see if she has anything to add.
In the meantime, I am hopeful that my response has helped general understanding of J&J's intentions with the LOA and increased comfort overall. - I believe legal has returned with