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Research Outline: FAR Requirement

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Introduction

Most of the products and services purchased by the federal government are purchased

by executive branch agencies, such as the Department of Defense. Most executive branch

acquisitions are subject to the Federal Acquisition Regulation, (FAR), which makes the FAR

an interesting topic for Members of Congress and their staff (Provost & Esteve, 2016).

Additionally, in 2012, the Defense Business Board advocated "zero-basing" the whole

procurement system, evidently including the FAR, to "restore the Packard Commission's

vision for managing requirements, acquisition, and budget processes (Provost &

Esteve, 2016). The study aims to provide an overview of the state and federal governments'

challenges while designing and managing contract acquisitions to private sectors due to poor

coordination.

Background Information

Many of the challenges with acquisition accountability arise from the way the federal

government procures goods and services. The purchase rules and regulations are extensive,

and the process is lengthy, difficult, and frequently fragmented in execution (De Rassenfosse

et al., 2019). Despite the extremely thorough guidance, identifying and resolving program

errors is frequently difficult. The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) is a highly

complicated system of regulations and system that regulate how the national government

purchases goods and services (Girth & Snider, 2018). The FAR aims to ensure that

purchasing practices are uniform and consistent and fair, and unbiased.

Literature Review

This section includes a review of literature on previous studies on the topic. Several

studies have been conducted to determine the state and federal governments' challenges while

designing and managing contract acquisitions to private sectors. Besides, studies have also
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explored some of the benefits of FAR requirements in addressing this problem (Girth &

Snider, 2018; De Rassenfosse et al., 2019; Fox & Morris, 2015; Provost & Esteve, 2016). De

Rassenfosse et al. (2019) explored the US government's procurement trend over the years to

determine contract allocation. To further this study, Fox and Morris (2015) explored the role

of accountability in government acquisitions. This section helps to understand information

related to the study topic, which guides study findings.

Findings

Findings show that poor control and management of contracts by government

agencies affect the process of contract acquisition (Provost & Esteve, 2016). Besides, the

scheduling and performance of the government contracts are poorly managed by the various

government agency departments due to fragmentation and delegation of the administrative

work (Girth & Snider, 2018). In addition, the other ongoing issue that affects major

government contracts is the in-sourcing problem (De Rassenfosse et al., 2019). The research

findings further indicate that the government uses FAR requirements for all national

executive agencies to regulate their acquisition of supplies and services with appropriated

funds (Girth & Snider, 2018). The regulation provides agencies with consistency, simplicity,

and cooperation throughout the purchase process. Additionally, the policy sets the rates for

billing, forward pricing, and financial overhead.

Conclusion

The use of the Acquisition Regulations is important to the executive agencies by

checking into the acquisition of the entire services and supplies with the needed funding. The

government contracts are to be scrutinized before they are given to qualified contracting

companies. The contracting companies are therefore mandated to give out their proposal

before they are awarded the contract. The regulation helps keep monitoring contracts
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awarded to various companies to improve the efficiency and accountability of the funds used

in such contracts. When the federal government considers all these, the issues of

accountability, coordination, management, efficiency, and uniformity of the Government

contracts are amicably solved.

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References

De Rassenfosse G, Jaffe A, Raiteri E (2019) The procurement of innovation by the US

government. Plus One 14(8): e0218927. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0218927

Fox, D., & Morris, J. C. (2015). The role of accountability in federal acquisition: A search for

context. Journal of Public Procurement, 15(4), 514-536. https://doi.org/10.1108/jopp-

15-04-2015-b005

Girth, A. M., & Snider, K. F. (2018). Acquisition in US federal agencies: Evidence from the

world's largest buyer. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F2055563620936374

Hansen, S. C., & Hermis, J. (2020). Innovation for hire: A descriptive study of federal

acquisitions and contractor R&D. Journal of Public Procurement.

https://doi.org/10.1108/JOPP-10-2019-0071

Provost, C., & Esteve, M. (2016). Collective action problems in the contracting of public

services. Journal of Strategic Contracting and Negotiation, 2(3), 227-

243. https://doi.org/10.1177/2055563616678640