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[[underlined]] Museum Support Center Storage Equipment [[/underlined]]

Mr. Adams introduced the following report, noting particularly the continued overcrowding of collection storage areas and attendant confusion and uncertainty over move schedules which are beginning to surface at the Natural History Museum in response to the lack of progress in completing the storage facilities within the Museum Support Center. There ensued a brief discussion of the factors which led to the current situation, which subject is expected to be reviewed in greater detail at the forthcoming meeting of the Audit and Review Committee.

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Previous reports to the Board of Regents, including the agenda for the May 1987 meeting, have documented efforts by the General Services Administration (GSA) with its general contractor to obtain structural decks and museum storage cabinets for the Museum Support Center. Such work is essential to fully equip the Center and to complete the move of millions of objects and specimens, primarily from the National Museum of Natural History. Delays in this move have created significant logistical and morale problems in that Museum.

Efforts by the GSA to obtain performance by the general contractor have been unsuccessful in all respects. As a result, on June 30, 1987, the GSA notified the general contractor that, as a result of its failure to meet commitments and schedules and make progress, the concrete deck portion of the contract would be defaulted immediately and, further, that the cabinet portion of the contract would be terminated subject to a 10-day cure period. On July 17, 1987, the response GSA received from the general contractor was insufficient, and the contract was terminated. Simultaneously with this action, the general contractor took several actions against the GSA, including a $7.4 million claim for delays to the work to the contractor and his subcontractors allegedly caused by the government, a $2.6 million tort claim for alleged government-caused interference with the contractor's bonding capacity and for other reasons, and a lawsuit for declaratory judgement for the government's alleged breach of its contact filed in the District Court for the District of Columbia. GSA is working with the Department of Justice on these matters. Currently, GSA is evaluating, and has initiated an audit, of the $7.4 million delay claim. GSA's rejection of the tort claim is presently being processed. The Justice Department has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit for declaratory judgement because the general contractor failed to exhaust his administrative remedies under the contract.