Announcing Contract Award and Responsibilities of the Contracting Officer Representative

Announcing Contract Award and Responsibilities of the Contracting Officer Representative

Every contract that is announced by the federal agencies has different requirements; however they are regulated by the FAR (Federal Acquisition Regulation) Act. In this scenario the U.S army is about to announce the contract award for the 5,000 electric generators that will be used by the U.S Army in the battlefield communication system. In this regard, contracting officer representatives play important role to ensure that the contractors are meeting the commitments towards the contracts. They have to guarantee the proper development of pre-requisites and also have to assist the contracting officers in contract management. This paper will evaluate the requirements for the contract awarding and the responsibilities of the contracting officer representative from the government officer who is working on this project.

Purpose of Announcing Federal Contract Awards

Federal governments of any country are the huge buyer of goods and services. Owing to this fact, it acquires, through contracts, billions in good and services every years. they also take into account the spending under newly awarded and the existing contracts. Due to the importance of the federal contracts, its awarding is quite a crucial and complex matter (Manuel, 2011). In order to accomplish this task efficiently, the federal agencies need responsible contract officers as well as contracting officer representatives.

There might be certain disagreements over the matter that what is contracted and why? It is agreed by everyone that federal contracts must be developed as well as managed in an efficient way to guarantee the positive results that must meet the government requirements and standards for timeliness, quality, completeness and cost (Pachter, 2010). Owing to this importance and complexity, this report is also concerned about the roles, responsibilities, and requirements of contracting officer representatives, as they are the technical experts of government and responsible for managing the technical facets of the contracts.

Evaluation of Requirements for Announcing Federal Contract Awards

Threshold for Announcement

According to the requirements of the regulation, it is necessary for the federal agencies, including the U.S Army, to announce the entire contract awards worth $3.5 million or above to the public, until or unless, a different threshold is mandated by the agency acquisitions regulations. The threshold that is defined by the regulation for the Department of Defense is $6.5 million and the threshold for the department of Homeland Security is $1 million. Congress needs to have special attention towards the threshold of the contract. It is due to the fact that congress is accountable for the constituents and also has a great interest in the economic benefits of contracts that are awarded to the organizations and the vendors situated in their jurisdictions (Compton, 2010).

Making the Announcements

Federal agencies must announce the contract awards by 5:00 p.m., the Washington D.C time on the award day. On the one hand, FAR does not regulate federal agencies to notify the members of Congress regarding contract awards (Compton, ...