I am getting on a flight right now but want to discuss his response...300 hours I am throwing a bs flag on that Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T -----Original Message----- From: Michael Dodd <mike.dodd@3dglobalsolutions.net> Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2010 09:07:30 To: Eric S. Montalvo<eric@puckettfaraj.com> Cc: mustreport@googlemail.com<mustreport@googlemail.com>; 'Mohammad Fahim'<mustreport@bb.roshan.af> Subject: RE: Way Ahead Eric, Many thanks for your thoughts on setting best practices in order to move forward as smoothly and successfully as possible. I look forward to the discussion soonest. Please see some thoughts / comments inserted below. From: Eric S. Montalvo [mailto:eric@puckettfaraj.com] Sent: Monday, August 16, 2010 7:32 PM To: Michael Dodd Cc: mustreport@googlemail.com; 'Mohammad Fahim' Subject: Way Ahead Mike, Purpose of this e-mail is to highlight some of the issues that need to be addressed in the near term and set a time to discuss. I have not ccâd the crew at large as this is a âCOâ level e-mailâyour discretion how you deal with that internally. Travel It is important that travel be pre-approved. I know that payment of travel and the cost of travel have been issues on both sides of the equation. We need to engage in a better up-front and back-end way of accomplishing travel. Mr. H has indicated he has the ability to book travel if he can get a copy of your passport. That is in the weedsâwe can discussâbottom line is travel needs to be dealt with up front. In that vein Mr. H desires to execute the travel to Geneva. At this time Tracy is not going to go on that trip. So total traveling will be yourself and Mr. H. As a result please do not schedule anything until I get confirmation of Mr. Hâs travel availability. He understands the timeline issue and we hope to get an answer tomorrow. [Mike Dodd] concur. We did send prior to movement a T/E budget which it was my understanding approved by Mr Hashimi. I have no issues whatsoever if Arrow prefers to book tickets, and reimburse for incidentals. For discussion. Payments Mr. H is tracking on ensuring timely reimbursements are to be made. One should be in your inbox within the next 48 hours. Mr. H would like a play by play of the next four weeks. Tracy is easy to employ given the technical side of things and his ability to supervise, develop, and establish all things petroâso that part should be easy. The question is what is 3D going to be doing or not going to be doing. We also need to discuss additional proposal draft compensation. Much earlier on I had discussed 20k per proposal (without understanding the whole process) and not the current contract. Given that 95% or thereabouts of the heavy lifting has been doneâthat seems to be a number which is not able to be justified. We need a reasonable quote to cover the next three proposals. As a frame of reference he was paying about 2k per proposal for BPAâs which he was winning and which were largely template based. [Mike Dodd] this is obviously an area of critical conversation. I would recommend we revisit the scope of work currently under contract so we realize the necessary efforts to run a successful fuels program. In no way is, as you put it, the âheavy liftingâ done. To the contrary it is just beginning. And each subsequent proposal will require the same amount of time to produce (nearly 300 hours). Even though some of the content is developed, we still need to do some significant edits and rewrites. Most importantly to address, convey and for us all to understand; the program management, contract administration, compliance and reporting is critical to the success of the program. That will require the $20K per month as it takes 50% of an 1102 series contracting officerâs time (must have on a US Fed Gov contract) 50% of a contracting specialists time, 40-50% of a DCAA certified accountant, 50% of time of a Program Manager. Non billable though we are expending a significant amount of time to get the program off the ground is my time and our President LtGen Frank Libutti. While I like to think how important my direct involvement is, :) having a retired 3 star General act as Liaison into the Defense Logistics Agency â Energy (formerly DESC) is invaluable. If Arrow wants to grow to several hundred million in annual revenues from fuels or other US Gov contracts those functions are must haves. As one example; monthly there will have to be contract mods to incorporate the Economic Price Adjustment as called for in the solicitation. An 1102 series contracting officer is the only one qualified to do the negotiation and write the contract mods and have them accepted by the contracting officer and added to the existing contract. Add in the FAR reporting / compliance; SF295 reports etc. critical functions to the success of the program. I strongly recommend on our subsequent proposals we recapture these necessary O/H expenses and ODCâs in our pricing model as we are allowed to do so. We need to lay out in detail now the accounting piece and project management. One of the most frustrating things in this last go round was to hear to words âwe are operating outside of our scope.â That means that the battlefield was not defined adequately. Lesson learned and I am not going to make that mistake again. On the other side and I take responsibility for this but I am having a hard time articulating what he is paying 20,000 for the next month for to 3D. I need your help to fill in that gap. [Mike Dodd] totally agree with you here. Some comments above relate here though one recommendation is for our DCAA accountant create invoices on Arrow letterhead for Arrow review, approval and submittal. I believe having a Dir of Fuel operations (Tracy) was also a significant step in the success of the program, and as we discuss possible program critical vulnerabilities perhaps will need to add some folks to the round out the âon the groundâ team. I understand your frustration of constantly hearing âwe are operating outside of our scope of workâ, because my team was the ones who had to do so, I sincerely understand. I do not think it was a mistake on anyoneâs part, as the business landscape presented itself we all had to adjust to get it done and get a proposal submitted. As an example; we were told that JP8 supply was available. It turned out not to be, so we had to immediately engage and go to our known supply partners and secure supply for the program. Tracy additionally identified a significant number of gaps in Arrows ability to perform on a contract as well. Which Mr H and Tracy moved at light speed to rectify so we would be compliant with the contract requirements and got everything back on track. Montalvo Role Mike you indicated that you wanted me to play a bigger role in this stuff. I need you to define that for me so I can assess my ability to contribute and whether the boss is on board (Mr. H and Neal). I do not believe Mr. H wants me to go into a hands off mode so I would rather figure out what my place is now so I donât frustrate communications into the future. [Mike Dodd] a resounding YES!!! Though I also realize you are a practicing attorney so you may need to juggle a significant amount of workload. I would almost like to see an IG type role; constantly reviewing all critical components of the program, all functions, all reports etc. and as an independent âobserverâ reporting findings back to Arrow team. And where appropriate attending meetings with suppliers so we can complete any administration / sign agreements at the table top meetings. I would like to see you with limited power of attorney to sign supply agreements. Very important. (I obviously do not have signatory authority for Arrow and therefore cannot bind Arrow to anything) I would like to hold a teleconference with yourself and Mr. H on Thursday morning. I am sure we will talk before then. Donât read anything into the tone of this e-mailâI have a trial coming up so I lose my ânice mode.â The hope is to build and implement lessons learned so we can improve opâs into the future. [Mike Dodd] Thursday morning is a horrible time for me, can we please reschedule for Friday or Saturday or Sunday? As I have been trading some personal emails with Mr H, I realize there is a significant amount of opportunity for both 3DGS and Arrow. There is no reason why Arrow should not have a billion dollar backlog within 24 months. V/r E -- Eric S. Montalvo Attorney at Law 1800 Diagonal Road Suite 210 Alexandria, VA 22314 eric@puckettfaraj.com (703) 706-9566 Phone (202) 285-5153 Cell (202) 318-7652 Fax DC × CA × MI × VA www.PuckettFaraj.com Practice is limited to matters and proceedings before special courts - federal courts - agencies. Confidentiality / Privilege Notice: This transmission, including attachments, is intended solely for the use of the designated recipient(s). This transmission may contain information that is confidential and/or privileged or otherwise protected from disclosure. The use or disclosure of the information contained in this transmission for any purpose other than that intended by its transmittal is strictly prohibited. If you are not an intended recipient of this transmission, please immediately destroy all copies received and notify the sender. ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. 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