The FAR and Contract Provisions for Protection

The Assignment Guide is designed to get you up-to-speed in your writing effort for Assignment #3 which is the last Assignment for this class. Like all other assignments, Assignment #3 contains Instructions which must be understood before you begin writing your paper. The purpose of this GUIDE is to help you weave your way through these instructions.

In this Assignment, you must read and CLEARLY understand the following instructions:

(1) You are appointed a Contract Office (Contracting Officer) for the Department of Energy (DOE). Importantly, in this role you have statutory authority to negotiate and enter into binding contracts with offerors on behalf of the US Government DOE. As a Contracts Officer for the Department of Energy, you have the requisite authority to exercise the Government's rights pertaining to contracts entered into with offerors. In this case, the Assignment assumes that the contract in question contains the Default clause. Under this clause the following facts are important and must appropriately be discussed and Guide your paper:

(a) Under contracts containing (this one does) the Default clause, the Government has the right, subject to notice requirements of the clause, to terminate the contract completely or partially for default if the contractor fails to:

  (i) Make delivery of the supplies or perform within the time specified in the contract.
  (ii) Perform any other provision of the contract.
  (iii) Make progress and that failure endangers performance of the contract.

These are the grounds you use to Terminate the Contract of this Assignment. I suggest that you choose two (2) grounds among these Three (3) grounds for Termination.

(2) DISCRETION TO TERMINATE FOR DEFAULT

(a) The standard FAR clauses generally grant the government the authority to terminate only after review by contracting and technical personnel, and by counsel, to ensure the propriety of the proposed action.

(b) Contracting Officer is required to exercise discretion. The standard default clauses do not compel termination. Instead, they permit termination for default if such action is appropriate in the business judgment of the responsible government officials. Thus, remember the following in this conjunction:

   (i) The Contracting Officer (for the government) can re-establish the delivery schedule. A delivery schedule can be re-established (bilaterally) or unilaterally, provided the new delivery date is reasonable and specific.

   (ii) The Contracting Officer can issue a cure notice.

Using the knowledge you have gained up to this section, you can create or make all necessary assumptions needed for the completion of this assignment.

(3) The Federal Acquisition Review

This is a Review of FAR: 52.246-1. For the purpose of this Assignment, I have selected few items consideration of which may facilitate your analyses of the issues involved.

(a) Inspection of Supplies - Fixed Price

   (i) The Contractor has an obligation to provide and maintain an inspection system acceptable to the Government covering supplies under contract.

   (ii) Only shall tender to the Government for acceptance supplies that have been inspected in accordance with the inspection system and have been found by the contractor to be in conformity with contract requirement. The right to review, whether exercised or not, does relieve the Contractor of obligations under the Contract.

   (iii) The Government has the right to inspect and test all supplies called for by the contract, at all places and times.

  (iv) The Contracting Officer may charge the contractor for any additional cost of inspection or test when prior rejection makes re- inspection or test necessary.

   (v) The Government has the right either to reject or to require correction of nonconforming supplies.

(b) Warranties

The next review under FAR: 52.246-1 is of warranties which the contractor provides as conditions of sale to the Government:

   (i) Notwithstanding inspection and acceptance by the Government of supplies furnished under the contract, or any condition of the contract concerning Conclusiveness thereof, the contractor warrants the conformity of supplies to contract requirements.

   (ii) All supplies furnished under the contract will be free from defects
in material or workmanship and will conform with all requirements of the contract.

  (iii) All implied warranties of merchantability and "fitness for a particular purpose" (remember the example of a pot that melts on the stove) are included when determining the conformity of supplies. You can use the failure of warranties as a case for contract termination and standard defaults.

REQUIREMENTS OF THE PAPER

(1) The Assignment topic is The FAR and Contract Provisions for Protection. This will also be the Running head, and the header of the paper.

(2) Length of the paper is three (3) to four (4) pages. These pages DO NOT include the Title (Cover Page) Page and the Reference Page.

(3) The paper MUST be typed and double spaced.

(4) STRICTLY follow APA Writing Style format. The APA format includes the Cover Page (including the running head, and header on EVERY PAGE - using the topic title) in text citations, and references. Use Times New Roman font (Size 12) with one (1) inch margins on all sides.

(5) Use a minimum of three (3) references. These must be academic references resulting from your research. DO NOT use Wikipedia.