Challenges of Contract Administration in Government Procurement

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Challenges of Contract Administration in Government Procurement

To thoroughly understand challenges associated with contract administration within the procurement process for the federal government, "you" must first understand the role of contract administration and the contract administrator. I will discuss these facets of the posting first and subsequently elucidate upon challenges and solutions to these challenges in the other half of the summary. In reference to contract administration, this entails activities that government officials perform after awarding contracts to ascertain whether the federal contractor performed their duties in accordance with the requirements of the contract.

Therefore, contract administration begins from the start of the contract until the work is complete regardless of whether the contract has been terminated or payment has been made because it has been accepted or if disputes have occurred that require a mediator to resolve these contracts. In essence, all business interactions between the government and the federal contractor are analyzed using contract administration. The primary part of the procurement process entails the use of contract administration to ensure that the government receives quality services and products by focusing on time, budgetary costs, and other issues such as supplies and services.

Contract administration requires a government employee who possesses the necessary skills and judgment to protect taxpayers' money by ensuring that the contractor adheres to high quality standards and doesn't require the federal government to spend more money than allotted for any government projects. In essence, contract administration tries to ensure that the public's interests are at the forefront of the contract process, and although the extent of contract administration does vary, the objective is always to establish clear and concise performance statements as well as a plan to monitor and measure the contractor's performance throughout the project. Larger projects will obviously result in extensive involvement of contract administrators whereas smaller contracts could simply result in minimum acceptance of delivery and payment to the contractor by the contract administrator.

As I stated previously, the contract administration must establish a clear and concise plan, which is known as the Contract Administration Plan or (CAP). The CAP is important because it helps define how the contract will be administered throughout the project while elucidating upon important implementation activities that help determine how to govern the behavior of contractors awarded federal government contracts. The frame of this plan includes the typical set of questions such as Who is responsible, What they are responsible for doing, When they should complete their duties, where they need to provide documentation of their activities, and how they plan to ensure that they complete the project in accordance with the governmental requirements.

The reason that the CAP is important for "your" posting is because of the fact that to understand challenges associated with contract administration in government procurement, there is a ...