To: Management Council Members, Contract Administrators, and Coordinators
From: Shared Services Center
Area: Procurement
Reason: ED-18 Guidance for Contract Administrators and Coordinators
Date: August 27, 2021
As you may be aware, on August 5, 2021, Governor Northam issued Executive Directive 18 stating "All Executive Branch Employees and state contractors who enter the work place or who have public-facing work duties must disclose their vaccine status to the designated agency personnel." While College CHRO's and others are working diligently to define the procedures for VCCS employees, the SSC Procurement team has been working with DHRM and DGS on the guidance for our contractors. The following communication outlines the approach that WE (Colleges and the SSC Procurement) will be following in order to ensure contractor compliance with ED #18.
From the DHRM guidance:
"Contract workers engaged through a state contract who work on-site or perform public-facing services on behalf of state agencies…must disclose their vaccination status to their employers (the contracting vendor that employs them.)", and
"must certify to the agencies that covered contract workers who work on site or perform public-facing services are:
a. Fully vaccinated or
b. If not fully vaccinated, are required to wear a mask, maintain social distancing, and adhere to all other agency safety protocols while working on-site or engaged in-person with the public."
In addition to the DHRM guidance above, we included in our communication and documents the flexibility for colleges to require contractors to follow a more restrictive mandate, where the contractor shall refer to the most current mandates prior to beginning work.
In accordance with Executive Directive, ED #18, Shared Services Procurement Team is working with all vendors on-contract to complete and document the Contractor Certifications. The status of the certifications for each contract will be tracked on the VCCS Contract List available on the SSC Website. Until the contractor has certified that their on-site employees are fully vaccinated, then the Contractor's shall wear a mask, when working with any of our employees or working on any of our Community College properties.
As the Contract Administrator or Coordinator, your role is to enforce this new requirement (you may want to maintain disposal masks for (sub)contractor's during transition). If you should encounter any issues, please educate the contractor and please contact the SSC Contract Officer immediately.
Please find attached the following:
- Communication sent to all eVA end users
- DHRM Guidance
