Contract Administration and Change Issues - Assignment Example

This role is critical in the management of projects as it compels the contractor to provide the necessary corrections to the project and stipulates to the contractor4 the consequences of failure to comply. Another important role of these officers regards the advice to the contractor on the liability of the contractor for the loss or damage to property acquired from the government for the achievement of the project. The role of the contractor ensures that the contractor gets information about this liability in order to guarantee that the tools are not destroyed or lost and in the circumstance, the loss or damage occurs the contractor becomes responsible for such loss or damage.

On the other hand, improving the methods of creating contract schedules translates to the systematic execution of projects and improvement of the entire contract management process by the contractor. Improved contract scheduling ensures that the occurrence of activities set out in the contract, the duration of the time these activities take, and how the various activities undertaken in the project relate to each other. Improving contract scheduling also provides the layout of executing the program and provides methods of measuring contract progress.

This ensures the accomplishment of the contract within the set out time and provides a method of ensuring achievement of set out goals in the required manner. Improving the contract scheduling process also assists in the identification, addresses any potential issues in the contract execution, and promotes accountability, in the process. Additionally, improving the contract scheduling process ensures scheduling of the key activities in the process in sequence in order to assign the required resources to these processes and provides for the integration of the key activities undertaken to ensure a viable result (John, Ralph & James 2006).

Furthermore, these improvements in the scheduling process provide the performance of risk analysis in the process, therefore, facilitate the distribution of reserves to high-risk activities and provide float times between key activities to ensure completion as per the contract schedule. In regard to the situation in question, the expected role of the contracting officers included the notification of the contractor to changes in the project especially in regard to the EM’s salt water processing facility where the safety board of the Defense nuclear facilities made concerns about the ability of the completed project.

Despite these concerns, the project development continued for a significant period. According to Glenn (2010), the contracting officer should have ensured that the concerns of the board were addressed immediately to reduce losses and delays. The report clearly provides that the failure of effective communication between the headquarters and the site officials resulted in this situation. The contracting officer should have ensured that the communication between the two reduced loses and delays because of rework on the project.

In respect to the NNSA’s project at the national ignition facility, the role of the contracting officer should have incorporated the development of project schedules to ensure the proper integration of technologies between