QUESTIONS REGARDING Tribal Projects, Procurement &Change Orders
Author: Clinton Prichard
A framework for transparency, sound management, fiscal
accountability, and responsible stewardship
Purpose
These questions are intended to help Tribal members
understand how projects and services originate; how scopes,
designs, solicitations, and contracts are developed; and how
amendments and construction change orders are reviewed,
approved, funded, and documented. They apply broadly to
capital projects, professional services, programs, grants,
purchases, and construction. They are designed to promote
informed discussion and stronger Tribal oversight. These
questions should also help ensure that Tribal decision-making
reflects our sovereignty, our responsibilities to our people, and
our obligation to protect the cultural, historical, and financial
resources entrusted to us for future generations.
Tribal Project Origination and Designation
1. How does a proposed Tribal project, program, or
contracted service originate, and who is authorized to propose it?
2. Who determines whether the proposed project or
service addresses an established Tribal need and
should become an official priority?
3. Is a written needs assessment, business case, or
statement of public benefit required before the Tribe
commits resources?
4. How is the project formally designated - for example,
as a capital project, construction project, professional
service, program initiative, grant-funded activity,
emergency procurement, or operational expense?
5. Who approves that designation, and what written
criteria control the decision?
6. Is the proposed project included in a long-range plan,
capital improvement plan, strategic plan,
departmental plan, or approved grant work plan?
7. What input is obtained from Tribal members, elders,
cultural and language staff, cultural knowledge
holders, affected departments, and the people who
will actually use the project or service before its
scope is established? When a project has cultural or
historical significance, who determines whether
appropriate cultural consultation has occurred?
8. Who is designated as the project sponsor, project
owner, project manager, and final decision-maker?
9. What outcomes, deliverables, performance
measures, schedule, and maximum budget are
established before procurement begins?
10. Is the entire reasonably foreseeable scope identified
at the beginning, or is work divided into phases,
separate contracts, or smaller purchases?
11. What controls prevent a project or service from
being divided to avoid competitive procurement,
Council review, or approval thresholds?
12. How are potential operating costs, staffing needs,
maintenance obligations, future phases, and
long-term financial commitments evaluated before
approval?
13. How is the long-term benefit to Tribal members
evaluated? Are we considering whether the project
will still serve our people 10, 20, or 50 years from
now - not simply whether funding is available to build
or begin it today?
14. Is funding identified and legally available before the
Tribe solicits bids or proposals?
15. What Council resolution, administrative
authorization, or other formal record establishes the
project and its initial budget?
16. Will the Tribe provide the project-originating request,
needs assessment, planning records, authorizing
resolution, initial budget, and designation
documents?
Design and Professional Services
17. How are architects, engineers, planners,
consultants, grant writers, project managers, owner's
representatives, and other professional service
providers selected?
18. Does the Tribe use a competitive request for
qualifications or request for proposals process, and
when may a provider be selected without
competition?
19. Are professional services evaluated primarily on
qualifications, experience, capacity, independence,
past performance, and value rather than lowest price
alone?
20. Who develops and approves the professional
service scope, required deliverables, schedule, fee,
and standard of care?
21. Are design and consulting contracts written clearly
enough to prevent essential work from later being
treated as an additional service?
22. Are providers required to disclose exclusions,
assumptions, allowances, limitations, conflicts of
interest, subcontractors, and services not included in
their fee?
23. Are licenses, references, insurance,
professional-liability coverage, disciplinary history,
and prior Tribal performance verified before
selection?
24. Are project requirements reviewed with affected
departments, Tribal members, elders, cultural and
language staff, cultural knowledge holders,
maintenance personnel, and end users before design
begins? For projects involving Ponca history, culture,
language, ancestral materials, sacred or sensitive
information, or culturally significant spaces, is cultural
review required throughout the design process rather
than only at the beginning?
25. What safeguards ensure that culturally sensitive
information, designs, imagery, language, ancestral
knowledge, archaeological information, or other
protected cultural materials are not disclosed,
reproduced, commercialized, or used by contractors
or consultants without appropriate Tribal
authorization?
26. Are formal reviews required at defined stages, such
as programming, concept, 30%, 60%, 90%, and final
design?
27. Who signs off at each stage, and are approvals
documented before the provider proceeds?
28. Are independent cost estimates, constructability
reviews, code reviews, peer reviews, value analysis,
and life-cycle cost evaluations performed before final
approval?
29. How does the Tribe verify that plans, specifications,
studies, grant applications, reports, or other
professional deliverables are accurate, complete,
coordinated, and usable?
30. Who is responsible when design errors, omissions,
coordination failures, inaccurate estimates, or
incomplete professional work cause added cost,
6delay, lost funding, or reduced project value?
31. Do contracts allow the Tribe to seek correction, fee
reduction, reimbursement, insurance recovery, or
other remedies for deficient professional services?
32. How many amendments, additional-service
authorizations, and fee increases have been
approved for each professional service contract?
33. What documentation is required to establish that an
added service was outside the original scope and is
reasonably priced?
34. Are firms with repeated errors, omissions, overruns,
or amendment requests considered ineligible or
scored lower in future selections?
35. Will the Tribe provide the solicitation, qualifications
received, evaluation scores, selection record, original
agreement, amendments, invoices, deliverables,
reviews, and approvals for each professional service
contract?
Procurement, Solicitation, and Contract
Award
36. What written procurement policy governs Tribal
projects, purchases, professional services, and
construction contracts?
37. Who prepares the solicitation documents, plans,
specifications, statement of work, and project scope
before bids or proposals are requested?
38. Who reviews these documents to confirm that the
scope is complete and accurate before bids are
accepted?
39. Does the Tribe use an architect, engineer,
construction manager, owner's representative, or
internal staff member to perform this review?
40. Are bidders and proposers required to identify
exclusions, allowances, assumptions, and potential
scope gaps in their submissions?
41. Is the contract awarded to the lowest bidder
automatically, or to the lowest responsive and
responsible bidder?
42. Besides price, what factors are considered, such as
qualifications, experience, capacity, safety, financial
responsibility, past performance, proposed approach,
and history of contract amendments or change
orders?
43. Are unusually low bids examined to determine
whether necessary work was omitted or
underestimated?
44. Are contractors required to provide bid bonds,
performance bonds, or payment bonds?
45. Were all applicable Tribal preference, Native
preference, grant, and federal procurement
requirements followed? Beyond minimum
compliance, what meaningful efforts were made to
identify qualified Ponca-owned and Native-owned
businesses, contractors, professionals, artists, and
vendors?
Tribal Member and Native Economic
Opportunity
46. When qualified Ponca members or Ponca-owned
businesses are available, what policies or practices
ensure they have a fair and meaningful opportunity to
participate in Tribal projects?
47. Do major Tribal contracts create opportunities for
Tribal-member employment, apprenticeships,
training, subcontracting, or other workforce
development so that Tribal dollars also help build
skills and economic opportunity within our own community?
Change-Order Totals
48. Please provide a complete list of change orders
approved for every major Tribal construction project
during the past five years.
49. For each project, please provide:
• Original contract amount
• Current adjusted contract amount
• Number of change orders
• Dollar amount of each change order
• Total value of all change orders
• Percentage increase over the original contract
• Reason for each change order
• Funding source used
• Person or entity requesting the change
• Person or body approving the change
50. How much has the Tribe spent collectively on
construction change orders during that period?
51. Which projects experienced the highest number and
highest dollar value of change orders?
52. How many projects exceeded their original contract
amounts by 10%, 20%, or more?
53. Were project contingencies established, and how
much remains in each contingency account?
Reasons and Responsibility
54. How many change orders resulted from each of the
following causes?
• Owner-requested changes
• Design errors or omissions
• Unforeseen site conditions
• Code or regulatory requirements
• Material-price changes
• Contractor errors
• Incomplete bid documents
• Work that should reasonably have been included in the
original contract
55. When a change order results from an architect's,
engineer's, consultant's, or contractor's error, who
determines financial responsibility?
56. Has the Tribe ever sought reimbursement,
professional-liability coverage, credits, or damages
for design errors or contractor mistakes?
57. Are contractors permitted to submit low initial bids
and later recover omitted costs through change
orders? What controls prevent this?
58. Have contractors with repeated change-order
problems continued to receive Tribal contracts?
59. Does the Tribe maintain performance records for
contractors, architects, engineers, and construction
managers?
Review and Approval
60. Who has authority to approve change orders, and
what are the dollar limits of that authority?
61. At what amount must a change order be brought
before the full Tribal Council?
62. Can multiple smaller change orders be approved
separately even when their combined value would
require Council approval?
63. Are change orders approved before the additional
work begins, or are they sometimes approved after
the work has already been completed?
64. What supporting documentation is required before
approval, including labor, material, equipment,
subcontractor quotes, markup, schedule impact, and
justification?
65. Does an independent professional verify that the
proposed cost is reasonable?
66. Are Tribal Council members given enough time and
documentation to meaningfully review change orders
before voting?
67. Are change-order votes recorded in meeting
minutes, including who moved, seconded, voted for,
voted against, or abstained?
68. Have any emergency or retroactive approvals been
used? If so, why?
Funding and Grant Compliance
69. What funding sources are being used to pay for
these change orders?
70. Have funds been transferred from other programs,
departments, reserves, or future project phases?
71. Have change orders reduced the scope or quality of
other Tribal services or projects?
72. For federally funded projects, were the change
orders reviewed for compliance with grant terms and
federal procurement requirements?
73. Were funding agencies notified or asked to approve
changes when required?
74. Could any change order jeopardize reimbursement,
grant compliance, or future Tribal funding?
75. Is Tribal Council receiving written confirmation that
adequate funding exists before approving each
change order?
Transparency and Possible Conflicts
Transparency should be the expectation for the expenditure
and management of Tribal resources while recognizing that
certain cultural, ceremonial, archaeological, personnel, legal,
or otherwise protected information may appropriately remain
confidential. Transparency in Tribal government should not
require disclosure of culturally sensitive or otherwise protected
information.
76. Will the Tribe provide members with the contracts,
original bids, bid tabulations, change orders,
invoices, payment applications, plans, specifications,
inspection reports, meeting minutes, and approval
records?
77. If any requested document is withheld, what specific
Tribal or federal law authorizes withholding it?
78. Were any Council members, employees,
consultants, contractors, or their immediate family
members connected financially or professionally to
the projects?
79. Were conflict-of-interest disclosures completed, and
did anyone recuse themselves from discussion or
voting?
80. Were contracts or change orders divided into smaller
amounts to avoid competitive bidding or higher-level
approval?
Quality and Project Outcomes
81. Who inspects completed work to verify that it
complies with the contract before payment is
authorized?
82. Has the Tribe paid for incomplete, defective,
duplicated, or nonconforming work?
83. Are retainage and final payment withheld until
deficiencies and warranty issues are corrected?
84. Have change orders extended project schedules? If
so, by how long and at what additional cost?
85. Have liquidated damages been enforced against
contractors responsible for avoidable delays?
86. Are facilities and projects being delivered with the
capacity, quality, cultural integrity, functionality, and
useful life originally promised to Tribal members?
87. After completion, does the Tribe evaluate whether a
project actually accomplished the purpose and
community benefit for which it was approved?
Accountability and Corrective Action
88. Has an independent construction audit been
conducted on any of these projects?
89. Will Tribal Council authorize an independent audit
comparing original contracts, change orders,
payments, physical work completed, and sources of
funding?
90. Has the Tribe completed a lessons-learned review
after each major project?
91. What corrective measures will prevent incomplete
plans, underestimated bids, and excessive change
orders on future projects?
92. Will the Tribe establish a public change-order report
showing the original contract, revised amount,
percentage increase, justification, and approval
authority?
93. Will Council consider requiring independent review
whenever cumulative change orders exceed a
specific threshold, such as 10% of the original
contract?
Suggested Opening Statement
I am not presenting these questions to accuse any individual,
employee, consultant, or contractor of wrongdoing. Tribal projects
and services sometimes require legitimate changes. However,
when projects begin without clear planning, professional scopes
repeatedly expand, or contract amendments and construction
change orders become extensive or unusually expensive, Tribal
members deserve to understand why, who approved the
decisions, how they were funded, and what safeguards are
protecting the Tribe. This is ultimately about sovereignty, cultural
responsibility, transparency, sound management, accountability,
and protecting the cultural, historical, and financial resources that
belong to present and future generations of Ponca people.
Important Procurement Principle
The lowest price alone is not always the best value. Competitive
purchases and construction contracts should generally
consider the lowest responsive and responsible bidder: a
submission that is complete, compliant, realistic, and offered
by a capable provider. Professional services may require a
qualifications- and value-based selection process because the
quality of planning, design, advice, and contract documents
directly affects later cost, performance, and risk.
Prepared for community discussion and Tribal governmental
accountability
Comments