Recently some of the Skyway members commented that in the forum, there sometimes seemed to be conflicting answers from the former contracting officers who work for Skyway. I’ve found that, after working for at least 4 different government agencies, no one does it the same way! I know that can be confusing at times, but even though the FAR and DFARS are clear on most things, there is enough leeway in the regulations to allow for multiple solutions to a contracting issue.
I know it can be frustrating to not get different answers from different agencies. The reason that many times we Skyway folk offer different answers is that over our careers we have watched acquisition and contracting evolve. and that evolution has taken many different shapes depending on the agencies we worked for during that time. Mostly that is because COs traditionally has been given enough freedom to use their judgement in resolving issues. How that judgement is used by the CO is usually a reflection of their personality and experience.
For example, let’s take the issue of consideration for late delivery on a contract. Regulations say you should get consideration that is appropriate for the delay. A measured response. Now ask any CO what late is, and I am sure you will get different answers. Some would say “Late is late”! Others would say a few weeks doesn’t matter unless there is an impact to agency. Neither is a wrong answer – it’s just the CO’s call.
COs are all trained on the basics, however each generation learns from the old and that “on the job training” influences them over their career. The warrant given to a CO is powerful responsibility. COs are taught to exercise that authority carefully. So, going back to the consideration example, the open-ended nature of calculating consideration puts the final decision in the CO’s hands because they will be signing that modification. So, depending on the COs risk comfort level, i.e., will someone come back one day and say bad call, it leads to different solutions to the same problem.
Now Government agencies can also act the same way. I worked for a civilian agency for a short period of time about 10 years ago. Having come from the tightly controlled world of DoD source selection, I found myself working on source selections that were using methods that were 5 years behind the times and left the agency exposed to protest over the award selection. I helped that agency revamp their source selection procedures to come more in line with processes that would result in better decisions. As a contractor dealing with that agency and DoD you would have been very confused in how differently source selections were being conducted.
I wish contracting with the Government was a science, simple or complex formulas that once the right numbers were input the answer would clearly appear. However, contracting is somewhat of an art and COs all have different styles. While it can be a bit confusing, I think it’s the exchange of ideas and experience that Skyway offers by having a diverse group of COs to provide our customers with the best solutions.