Create DBE Participation for Federal Project

Description

This function is part of the Contract Awards subsystem and is used to electronically create the forms for DBE Participation for Federal Projects (formerly Attachment A’s). For federal aid projects where a DBE Goal has been established, the apparent low bidder must submit the required information prior to the Due Date (by default within 7 days of the date they are determined to be the apparent low bidder). One DBE Participation screen must be submitted for each minority business partner the prime wishes to submit. Each form must be acknowledged by the DBE business partner listed on the form. The apparent low bidder can perform the submission function multiple times, as long as the Review has not been marked as complete and the Submission Due Date has not passed.

The system automatically calculates the DBE percentage that may be achieved (assuming the forms are approved) based on the value of the Amount field in the underlying forms. When the forms are submitted, authorized users receive an email notification informing them that the information is ready to be reviewed. The reviewer may approve, disapprove, or conditionally approve each form. Before the contract can be awarded, the reviewer must mark the entire package as "completed". In order for the contract to be awarded, the value of the approved DBE percentage must be equal to or greater than the DBE Goal established for the project. (Unless the prime contractor has requested and been granted a Good Faith Effort Evaluation, or has declared themselves "Self-Contained".

Important Note: As soon as you create the DBE Participation form and submit it to the DBE business partner, it becomes available for the specified DBE business partner to access in order to acknowledge the form. It is the prime contractor’s responsibility to ensure the forms are acknowledged in a timely manner so that the package of forms can be electronically submitted by the Submission Due Date.

Quick Navigation

The following table provides an overview of the steps in this process. Detailed step-by-step directions are provided in the next section.

From this screen….	perform this action:
Contractor Project Page	Click the DBE Participation for Federal Projects link
DBE Participation for Federal Projects List	Click the ADD button
Select Business Partner pop-up screen	Choose user for whom you want to create DBE Participation Note: You can select multiple business partners, but you will be returned to the list. You will need to navigate to the detail screen for each business partner to update the data and select the work items the DBE will perform.
DBE Participation for Federal Projects (detail screen for selected Business Partner)	Enter: · Your firm's contact information · DBE Business Partner Information · Agreement Amount Click SAVE button Click ADD ITEM button
DBE Participation Item	Select construction item(s) to associate with DBE If applicable, indicate partial item Enter Partial Description Click SAVE
	Repeat for each user

Step-by-Step Directions

User Action	Result
Open your browser software and access the ECMS Welcome page.	The ECMS Welcome page is displayed with the navigation bar on the left.
Using the Registered Users Login fields at the top of the navigation bar, enter your user ID and password. Click GO or tap the Enter key.	The ECMS Welcome page appears. Your user name now appears at the top of the navigation bar, and the navigation bar options are tailored to your security group(s).
From the navigation bar, select the Contractor Services option.	The Contractor Services options available to your user group are displayed.
Select the My Projects option beneath Contractor Services on the navigation bar.	The My Projects page is displayed and lists the projects associated with your business partner ID.
If needed, enter search criteria to narrow the displayed listing of projects, then click the REFRESH button.	The My Projects page is updated based on your search criteria.
Locate the project for which you want to create a DBE Participation form and click the Project Number hyperlink.	The Contractor Project page for the specified project is displayed.
If necessary, use the down arrow icon at the upper left of the screen to jump to the bottom of the screen.	The lower portion of the screen is displayed.
Click the DBE Participation for Federal Projects hyperlink.	The DBE Participation for Federal Projects List is displayed. Initially, the Review Status field is blank; the DBE % field displays the DBE Goal for the project, and the Approved percentage and Ready to Review percentage fields display zeroes. The list sections (Completed, Ready for Review, and Submission Needed) are blank.
Under the Prime section of the screen, enter the name of the contact person in your firm who can answer questions about the DBE for Participation form in the Contact field.	The name you entered appears in the field. This is a required field.
Enter the contact person’s telephone number, including area code in the Phone field.	The number you entered appears in the field in 999-999-9999 format.
Note the DBE Goal field is displayed at the bottom of the Prime section of the screen.	None.
Click the ADD button.	The Select Business Partner pop-up screen opens in a separate browser window. The list of business partners displays all qualified subcontractors and all certified business partners. The selection list allows you to choose one or more business partners for whom you want to create a DBE form and click the OK button.
If you selected a single business partner, the detail screen is displayed.	The DBE Participation for Federal Projects screen is displayed. This screen is essentially the blank “Attachment A” form. You will create an Attachment A for each DBE business partner. Note: You can declare that you will be ‘self-contained’ (that is, not planning to subcontract any work, service, or supplies) by selecting the Self-Contained checkbox at the bottom of the DBE Participation for Federal Projects list. You can request that your firm be permitted to perform less than 50% of the work class codes for the project by selecting the Request to Perform Less Than 50% of Work Items checkbox. To request a Good Faith Effort Evaluation, select the Request for Good Faith Effort Evaluation checkbox. Each procedure is explained in a separate Help document.
Enter the contact information for the DBE business partner.	The Contact name and telephone number you entered appear in the fields. Note: Certification data is prefilled based on the information stored in the ECMS database and cannot be edited on this screen.
Enter the amount of the agreement between your firm and the DBE business partner in the Agreement Amount field.	The amount you entered is displayed in the field, and the system calculates the % Bid field. Note: If the user is a regular dealer, the Credit @ 60% field is calculated based on the agreement amount you entered. The value of the Credit @ 60% field is then used by the system (rather than the entire Agreement Amount) to calculate the estimated percentage that will be achieved if all the forms are submitted and approved.
Enter the amount of mobilization in the Mobilization field.	The value you entered appears in the field.
Enter the starting and completion dates of the agreement between your firm and the DBE business partner in the Starting and Completion date fields.	The dates you entered appear in the fields. The dates must be entered in mm/dd/yyyy format. Tip: You can use the Calendar/clock icon to the right of the date fields to select the date from a pop-up calendar graphic. The calendar graphic displays the current month. If the date you want to select is within the current month, simply click the day. To change the month the calendar displays, use the single left- arrow key to display the previous month(s) and the single right-arrow key to display the next month. The year can be changed using the double arrows.
Select the type of business from the drop-down list.	The entry you selected appears in the field. Note: A user may be submitted on multiple DBE Participation forms, provided each form has a different Business Type selected to it. For example, you may wish to use one DBE firm to supply materials and provide trucking services.
Click the SAVE button.	The system displays a ‘please wait’ message while the DBE information is saved. When the processing is complete, a ‘save successful’ message is displayed.
Click OK on the message box.	The DBE Participation screen is re-displayed, and the data you have entered thus far has been saved.
To associate specific work items with the DBE business partner, click the ADD ITEM button.	The DBE Participation Item screen is displayed with the name of the DBE business partner appearing beneath the Project and Contract Awards header sections.
To select one or more bid items, click the selection arrow to the right of the Item number field.	The Add Construction Items selection window is displayed in a separate browser window. This screen is in the standard ECMS selection window format. The Select Items to be Added list box displays the list of construction items (at this point, the same as the bid items) from the bid.
Click the X in front of the item or items you want to associate with this DBE business partner in the Select Items to be Added list box.	The item(s) you selected appears in the "items to be added" list.
Click the OK button.	The item(s) is associated with the DBE form. If you selected a single item, you are returned to the DBE Item screen for that item, where you can indicate the DBE's participation will be partial, if applicable. If you selected multiple items to associate with the DBE, you are returned to the DBE Participation for Federal Projects (detail) screen for the specified business partner. You can access a specific item for the DBE by clicking the Item Number hyperlink.
If the DBE business partner will perform only part of the work item, navigate to the DBE Item screen and select the Partial checkbox.	An ‘X’ appears in the selected checkbox, and the Partial Description field appears below.
Enter a brief description of the partial work to be performed in the Partial Description field.	The text you entered appears in the field. If the Partial checkbox is selected, this is a required field that accepts up to 255 alphanumeric characters.
Click the SAVE button.	The system displays a ‘please wait’ message while the DBE item information is saved. When the processing is complete, a ‘save successful’ message is displayed.
Click OK on the message box.	The message box closes, and the DBE Participation for Federal Projects Item screen is re-displayed with the data you just entered and saved.
To continue associating items with the DBE business partner, click the ADD button.	The fields on the screen are cleared, and you can select another work item to associate with the DBE business partner by clicking the selection arrow to the right of the Item number field and repeating the previous steps.
When you have finished associating items with this DBE business partner, click the SAVE & EXIT button to return to the DBE Participation for Federal Projects List.	The DBE Participation for Federal Projects List is displayed. The Items you associated with the DBE business partner are displayed in the embedded Items and Partial Items tables at the bottom of the screen.
If you are satisfied with the form, select the Ready to Submit checkbox at the bottom right of the screen, then click the SAVE button.	The system displays the ‘please wait’ and the ‘successful’ messages as described above. When the screen is re-displayed, the BEO Form Status field displays ‘Ready to Submit’. However, before you can submit the form, the DBE business partner must log into the system, access the form, and acknowledge it by clicking the ACKNOWLEDGE button.

Related Help Documents

Topic	Help Document
Project listing	Tell Me About My Projects
List of BEO submissions	Tell Me About DBE Participation for Federal Projects or MBE/WBE Commitment for State Projects List
Form fields, functions	Tell Me About DBE Participation for Federal Projects or MBE/WBE Commitment for State Projects Screen
Subcontracted items	Tell Me About DBE Participation Item or MBE/WBE Commitment Item

Created by
Joseph D Howe/PennDOT on 03/16/2005 at 10:50:59 AM