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The Engineer for manufacturing all programs and projects at a location is the unique authority for making many decisions on the work under United States contracts at the location. The Engineer possesses a type of knowledge termed superior knowledge because of the Engineer's unique relationship to the Engineer's own work. The Engineer's own work of the United States makes the Engineer the only person able to decide many questions. The Engineer is unique because the Engineer is minding the Engineer's own business and is the only person who can possibly know what is in the Engineer's own best interest and, equivalently, in the best interest of the United States. There is nobody else who can answer for the Engineer and so the Engineer is deemed to have superior knowledge. There are responsibilities that accompany the rights of the Engineer when dealing with additional parties. Those parties have a right to be informed of certain types of information only the Engineer could possibly know. Those parties, chiefly outside contractors, can be harmed when vital information is needed to perform the contracted work, for example. This is a special case called the Doctrine of Superior Knowledge. This is a complicated subject for the Engineer and the contractor. The contractual duty to cooperate is similar and should result in the activity of cooperation in a routine way. If confused then read the contract and find the phrases "the United States agrees" or "the United States shall" and understand the ordinary interpretation applied by the courts to find the cooperation needed from the Engineer. Be sure to avoid an adversarial confrontation when cooperation is the goal. See: Doctrine of Superior Knowledge for a related discussion. Most of the cited cases seem to be for small contracts without on-site administration and can include matters peripheral to a contract. Notice the duty can even bind the government internally where contractors cannot normally go. Also notice the courts frequently address the Government of the United States in those cases when the United States is the actual party to the contract. |