HC 585 - Transforming Contract Management

HC 585 - Transforming Contract Management
Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Committee of Public Accounts
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Total Pages: 32
Release: 2014
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0215078950

The private sector delivers complex services on behalf of the public sector, to the value of around £90 billion, which represents half of public sector expenditure on goods and services. The public needs to have confidence that contracts are managed well by both government departments and the contractors themselves. The case of G4S and Serco overcharging the Ministry of Justice for years on electronic tagging contracts was the starkest illustration of both contractors' failure to work in the public interest and government failure to safeguard taxpayers' money. The electronic tagging case has served as a belated wake up call and, led by the Cabinet Office, the Government is now working to improve the way it manages its suppliers and contracted-out providers of public services. This report sets out four key areas for attention: contractors have not shown an appropriate duty of care in the use of public funds; quasi-monopoly suppliers squeeze out competition, often from smaller companies with specific experience; the way government contracts gives too much advantage to the contractors.

The Responsible Contract Manager

The Responsible Contract Manager
Author: Steven Cohen
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2008-10-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1589016491

Contract management is a critical skill for all contemporary public managers. As more government duties are contracted out, managers must learn to coordinate and measure the performance of private contractors, and to write contract requirements and elicit bids that obtain important services and products at the best possible price and quality. They must also learn to work in teams that include both public and private sector partners. The Responsible Contract Manager delves into the issues of how to ensure that the work done by private sector contractors serves the public interest and argues for the necessity of making these organizations act as extensions of the public sector while maintaining their private character. Government contract managers have a unique burden because they must develop practices that ensure the production advantages of networked organizations and the transparency and accountability required of the public sector. The Responsible Contract Manager fills a major gap in public management literature by providing a clear and practical introduction to the best practices of contract management and also includes a discussion of public ethics, governance and representation theory. It is an essential guide for all public management scholars and is especially useful for students in MPA graduate programs and related fields.

Contracting for Services in State and Local Government Agencies

Contracting for Services in State and Local Government Agencies
Author: William Sims Curry
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 495
Release: 2016-04-28
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1317221028

This second edition of Contracting for Services in State and Local Government Agencies provides state-of-the-art tools for best practice in the procurement of services at state and local levels, from initial stages through to completion. Including lively case studies and research conducted with state and local agencies across the United States, this book provides management advice and tips on compliance to reduce costs, select the best-qualified contractors, manage contractors’ performance, and prevent corruption and waste. Utilizing the results of new research in all fifty states, author William Sims Curry offers updated best-practice documents, methodologies, and templates including: a Request for Proposal (RFP), a scorecard for proposals to select the best-qualified contractor, a toolkit for meeting socioeconomic contracting goals without compromising price, quality, or on-time delivery, and a Model Services Contract (MSC). Special consideration is given to obtaining services and products in states of emergency. Several additional resources for practitioners are available online, including sample contracts and a straightforward, inexpensive tool for tracking contractors’ progress and cost management. The roadmap and templates contained in this book and available online to readers will prove essential to state and local government agency contracting professionals and other officials and employees called upon to participate in the drafting of solicitations, writing sole source justifications, writing scopes of work, serving on advance contract planning and source selection teams, recommending award of contracts, or assisting in the management of those contracts.

Administration of Government Contracts

Administration of Government Contracts
Author: John Cibinic, Jr.
Publisher: Wolters Kluwer
Total Pages: 1458
Release: 2006-01-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0808014358

This unbiased analysis of statutes, regulations, and case law clarifies the complex rules of federal procurement policies, explaining the processes that government personnel and contractors must follow in every aspect of government contractingand—from inception to completion. Topics include contract administration and personnel, contract interpretation, risk allocation, changes, delays, pricing of adjustments, and much more.

Government Contracting

Government Contracting
Author: William Sims Curry
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 314
Release: 2010-04-27
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1420085662

A guidebook through the minefield of government contracting and procurement, Government Contracting: Promises and Perils describes the dangerous practices commonly applied in the development and management of government contracts and provides advice for avoiding the sort of errors that might compromise their ability to protect the public interest. It includes strategies for increasing profits for government contractors, rather than incurring burdensome costs, through compliance with government mandated subcontracting and financial management systems. Drawing from his indepth investigation of government agencies across the country, the author examines present-day scenarios that regularly lead public servants and government committees to manage contracts with tools that are less than optimal and to select contractors that may not be the best qualified. He then delineates practical processes, contracting documents, and contract management tools to mitigate detrimental outcomes and alternative approaches to supplant the imperfect methodologies. The author includes a CD-ROM with the book that provides a number of practical tools that you can apply as well as examples of contracts and templates that are the best he discovered during his research. The book also outlines an approach for performing advance contract planning, conducting contract negotiations, and administering contracts useful when planning for the management of the contracting process throughout the contracting cycle, negotiating a contract that protects the interest of all contracting parties, and ensuring successful contractor performance. The book includes a "Government Procurement Corruption Wall of Shame" that illustrates the myriad perils and stumbling blocks such as conflicts of interest, duplicity, favoritism, incompetence, kickbacks, and protests that government workers fall prey to.. Filled with best practices that protect you from nefarious, amateurish, and criminal mistakes that frequently lead to difficulties with harsh consequences, the book does not end its coverage with discussions of corruption, mismanagement, and ineptitude, but provides practical processes and strategies to diminish the negative impacts from these government contracting perils.

Transforming Government Supply Chain Management

Transforming Government Supply Chain Management
Author: Jacques S. Gansler
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 284
Release: 2004
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780742534209

While the commercial sector has been rapidly adopting modern, information-based supply chain systems--in order to remain competitive in the worldwide marketplace--the shift to such systems in the public sector has met with significant resistance and has moved far more slowly. Transforming Government Supply Chain Management provides the insights and expertise to overcoming this inertia. In the first half of the book, the editors provide a primer on supply chain management, an overview of innovative practices and tools, and a blueprint for government-wide transformation. The second half consists of 10 case studies of public and private sector "success stories."

Managing Federal Government Contracts

Managing Federal Government Contracts
Author: Charles D. Solloway Jr., CPCM
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Total Pages: 499
Release: 2013-02-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1567263976

You've Got Questions – We've Got Answers Questions can arise at any point in the process of working with government contracts. Now, you have an accessible resource you can trust for authoritative answers.Managing Federal Government Contracts: The Answer Book covers the contract management process from planning to closeout and all the steps in between. Using the regulations and legislation as a basis, author Charles Solloway draws on his many years of experience to craft answers that will help you address the issues you face every day . This book provides answers to the questions most commonly asked by government program and contracting personnel, contracting officer's representatives, contractor employees, inspectors, and all those involved in government contract management. The question-and-answer format makes getting the information you need quick and efficient. Examples of forms and templates drawn from actual contract work are included to make your work easier. Along with the basics on the roles of the various contract team members and the different aspects associated with each contract type, this resource covers: • Partnering issues • Data use for efficient contract management • Remedial actions and how to properly initiate them • The government's role with subcontractors Don't let your questions go unanswered. Get Managing Federal Government Contracts: The Answer Book.

Government by Contract

Government by Contract
Author: Jody Freeman
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 550
Release: 2009-02-28
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780674032088

The dramatic growth of government over the course of the twentieth century since the New Deal prompts concern among libertarians and conservatives and also among those who worry about government’s costs, efficiency, and quality of service. These concerns, combined with rising confidence in private markets, motivate the widespread shift of federal and state government work to private organizations. This shift typically alters only who performs the work, not who pays or is ultimately responsible for it. “Government by contract” now includes military intelligence, environmental monitoring, prison management, and interrogation of terrorism suspects. Outsourcing government work raises questions of accountability. What role should costs, quality, and democratic oversight play in contracting out government work? What tools do citizens and consumers need to evaluate the effectiveness of government contracts? How can the work be structured for optimal performance as well as compliance with public values? Government by Contract explains the phenomenon and scope of government outsourcing and sets an agenda for future research attentive to workforce capacities as well as legal, economic, and political concerns.

Government Contracting

Government Contracting
Author: William Sims Curry
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2016-08-05
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1315536439

The second edition of Government Contracting: Promises and Perils picks up where the first edition’s mission left off: exposing fraud, incompetence, waste, and abuse (FIWA) and analyzing corruption, mismanagement, and ineptitude that defile government contracting. The first edition thoroughly outlined procurement throughout the contracting cycle including initial planning, contractor selection, contract administration, contract closeout, and auditing. This significantly revised new edition provides additional much-needed guidance on contracting documents, management tools, and processes for addressing negative influences on government contracting, including an improved approach to evaluating proposals. Specific guidance for avoiding FIWA is provided for government officials and employees, government agencies, and government contractors, and practical solutions to problems faced by individuals and organizations involved in government contracting are intended for both practitioner and pedagogical applications. The "Government Procurement Corruption Wall of Shame" that was introduced in the first edition to illustrate contracting perils such as conflicts of interest, duplicity, favoritism, incompetence, kickbacks, and protests is continued in the second edition, and cases illustrating the existence of FIWA in government contracting have been thoroughly updated. Contracting documents and contract management tools are provided on a website designed to accompany the book. Written at the graduate level and specifically intended for state, local, federal, and international government procurement activities, this textbook is required reading for public procurement, contract management, business, and public administrations courses.