The Us Government Contracting - Essay Example

US Government Contracting INTRODUCTION Government contracting has proved to be a beneficial aspect specifically for numerous small businesses in the form of raising sales opportunities and thus accomplishing superior profitability. It has been apparently observed that the small businesses are not sure enough in deciding how to efficiently carry out the governmental contracting procedure due to having deficiency in knowledge regarding the same. It is worth mentioning in this similar concern that the different governmental levels support in developing the governmental contracting procedure by a considerable extent. THESIS STATEMENT Based on the above discussion, this essay intends to analyze various significant aspects that are related to governmental contracting procedure. ROLE OF THREE BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT IN PROCUREMENT PROCESS The three branches of government that play imperative role in the procurement process are Legislative branch, judicial branch and Executive branch. All these branches possess equal power and contribute in developing the entire procurement process at large. The Legislative branch mainly encompass Senate along with the House of Representatives, playing the role of formulating effective laws that are required to be taken into concern while dealing with the procurement procedure. On the other hand, the Executive branch comprises a President and cabinet members, which tends to enforce and carry out the laws that have been formulated by the Legislative branch associated with the procurement process. Finally, the judicial branch of government is viewed to be composed of all courts, which play the role of interpreting the formulated laws and punishing ones who violate such laws in any nation or state. MAJOR REGULATIONS THAT REGULATE AND PROVIDE GUIDANCE FOR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT One of the major regulations, which control and provide guidance for federal government procurement, is Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR). This is because the notion of FAR mainly helps in growing business in federal marketplace and provides various growth prospects. In this similar concern, a federal contract signifies complying with the lawful regulations as framed by the governments while performing any activity. The procurement regulations of FAR are regarded as the most significant and composite set of aspects that tends to regulate the market reforms in an effective manner (SBA, “Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR)”). DESCRIPTION OF “MARKET RESEARCH” WHILE BUYING A CAR Market research often plays an imperative role in gathering valuable information like the presence of products in a particular business market, product prices and most vitally the requirements as well as the preferences of the customers. In order to conduct a market research while purchasing a car, it is often observed that a number of individuals become inspirational and thinks of buying luxury as well as exclusive model of cars. I too consider myself in that category of thinking exclusive cars. The market research, which I did when buying a car is that I first looked into the model of the car and what is the price of the model, which has been recently launched in the market. This eventually helped me to know about the local market, which provides the same car, despite having differences particularly in price as compared to other global markets. In relation to market research, I found that the websites have really helped me in dealing with the process of buying the car. I believed that conventional research has provided me the knowledge of the existing car models and also the review of the people has helped me a lot to buy a car. The access to the websites really changed my perception of buying a car in the local market as well as internationally. MARKET RESEARCH FOR PROCURING SERVICES OF A MOLECULAR RESEARCH CHEMIST I would certainly consider certain important aspects for conducting market research while procuring the services of a molecular research chemist for a specific research and development (R&D) project. It would be vital to mention in this regard that a molecular research chemist plays an imperative role in the development of a society. Specially mentioning, for market research, I would take into concern the quality and the skilled personnel who play a decisive role in procuring services through utilizing their respective knowledge and potentiality regarding the similar subject matter. It is strongly believed that the aforementioned aspect would certainly help me in acquiring quality product and most vitally alleviating the adverse effects that may rise during the process. Apart from considering the quality as well as the skilled workers, the other aspects that I will consider for market research include identifying the costs incurred for procuring the services of a molecular research and acquiring a brief idea about the terms as well as the conditions that are related to the services in a particular marketplace. SOURCES REQUIRED FOR THE PROCUREMENT PROCESS The required sources that are often used in the procurement process have been demonstrated in the following. Proper Planning and Need of Purchase. Purchasing a unsuitable product or service may lead towards raising huge costs. Thus, proper planning is required while making any procurement. Specification Required For Purchasing. Proper specification for a particular product or service may reduce the unnecessary costs. Implementing Proper Purchasing Method. Developing a proper procurement plan will help in analyzing the business market conditions. Documentation Related To Purchasing. Standard documentation while obtaining products or services may reduce management related risk level by a certain extent. Evaluating the Purchasing Offers. Proper evaluation of the purchasing offers will certainly help in conducting audit process effectively. Negotiations Related To Purchasing. This improves communication procedure and helps in defining the terms of the tender relating to the procurement of a service. DISCUSSION OF THREE TYPES OF SPECIFICATIONS FOR A LAWN MAINTENANCE CONTRACT A description about the three sorts of specifications that could be used in the solicitation for a lawn maintenance contract has been described in the following. Design Specification. In the design process, the lawn maintenance contract will include the process of trimming along with mowing and edging. The turf areas would be molded and care must be taken as not more than 2/3 of the leaf blades are removed during mowing to provide shape. The mover blades will require to be sharp in order to get real finishing and appropriate design. Performance Specification. For the lawn maintenance contract, a huge workforce will be involved to get the work done within the stipulated time of the contract and steps required to be taken into concern for enhancing the performance of the team associated with such contract. Functional Specification. A huge figure of workforce requires to be involved for conducting the contract effectively in terms of performing various specified functions. These functions can be apparently observed as operational and performance related among others. It is to be affirmed every individual will be given priority to complete the work efficiently and also to mitigate any sort of accident, which might occur during the process of lawn maintenance. COMPARISON BETWEEN FIXED-PRICE CONTRACTS AND COST-TYPE CONTRACTS In context to the above discussed lawn maintenance contract, a fixed-price contract provides the price, which is not related to any adjustment based on the contractors’ knowledge in performing varied tasks related to the contract. Specially mentioning, the fixed-price contracts do not contain any cost related to the adjustments, but this may include the costs that the contractors bear during the lawn maintenance. In contrast, the cost-type contracts denote the payment made to the contractors based on the incurred costs rather than adjustment related expenses. It would be vital to mention that this particular sort of contract would prove to be quiet beneficial in making the contract a successful one in terms of mitigating any sort of cost related issue. COMPARISON BETWEEN SEALED BIDDING AND COMPETITIVE NEGOTIATION The term sealed bidding is typically regarded as a contracting procedure, which constitutes varied aspects like ‘public opening of bids’ along with ‘awards’ and ‘competitive bids.’ One of the benefits, which the contractors might reap through sealed bidding, is that the contractors are not obligated to provide any information linked with profit or cost validating their respective bid prices. On the other hand, competitive negotiation is fundamentally regarded as the mechanism, which is often adopted for negotiating price as well as terms that surround a particular transaction. This method is quite beneficial for the contractors, as they do not have to remain much concerned about the costs or prices to be incurred with holding higher bids. SUMMARY OF THE DIFFERENCES AND THE SIMILARITIES OF FILING WITHIN THE THREE LEGAL FORUMS One of the similarities persisting between the legal forums i.e. the Solicitation, the Comptroller General or the Court of Federal Claims (COFC) is that one can file lawsuits in any of these forums. However, the differences between these three can be apparently observed in terms of time frame for filing and the documentation of the protest package among others. In this regard, relating to the time frame for filing, it can be apparently noted that in the legal forum of the Solicitation, filing cannot be done within the period of 10 days later the source of protest is identified. However, the time frame for filling in the legal forum of the Comptroller General can be lengthened to 30 days. In this regard, the Comptroller General shall establish and operate an electronic filing documentation system through which various laws can be applied in varied situations. In contrast, the time frame for filing in the legal forum of COFC include 90 days or within one year. DISCUSSION OF SMALL BUSINESS, SMALL DISADVANTAGE BUSINESS, THE 8(A) PROGRAM, HUBZONE PROGRAMS, WALSH-HEALEY ACT AND SERVICES CONTRACT ACT ‘Small business’ generally denotes the business, which is owned by one particular individual. Similarly, ‘small disadvantage business’ signifies a particular business, whose major portion is owned by one or more people who are noted to be both financially as well as socially disadvantaged. ‘The 8(a) program’ represents a kind of business assistance program, which is mainly designed for small disadvantaged businesses. Specially mentioning, ‘HUBZone programs’ tend to provide active support to the above discussed businesses in terms of facilitating these to access the opportunities that are associated with federal procurement. Thus, it can be affirmed from a broader understanding that the procurement regulations about making payments, terminating contracts and accepting the delivered goods or services as one of the parts of FAR, which covers the aforementioned programs (SBA, “Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR)”). The Walsh-Healey Act was passed in the year 1936 and it is mainly applied in such contracts that exceed $10,000 for manufacturing products or services. The Act mainly concerns about providing wages to the workforce of an organization in accordance with the profits derived from conducting any business operation. The law makes the provision that no employment is provided below the age of 16 and set certain standards for maintaining healthy competition within the business process. On the other hand, The Services Contract Act tends to safeguard the self-interests of service employees in terms of offering them with fair wages and other fringe benefits. CONCLUSION Based on the above analysis and discussion, it has been quite apparent that apart from varied branches of government, it is the procurement legislations of FAR that play an imperative role in developing the overall procurement procedure at large. It can be concluded that the legislations concentrating the development of procurement process as a part of FAR eventually covers small as well as disadvantaged businesses, the 8(a) programs and HUBZone programs by a considerable extent. Work Cited “Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR).” SBA. n.d. Web. 14 Jun. 2014. Read More