Contracts and Performance-Based Acquisition

Project description
Please use the books Government Contracts in a nut shell by Steven Feldman and Federal Acquisition key Issues and Guidance by Paula Compton as two of the six sources needed.

Imagine that you are working on a two-million-dollar procurement for the purchase of vehicles for the fleet of trucks and cars to be used by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection. These vehicles will be used for off-road driving on dirt roads in Arizona. Your manager has asked you to select the type of contract to be used for the vehicle purchase.

Choose to respond to this scenario from a government or a contractor perspective. If you select government, then you will complete the assignment as if you are a government employee (or military personnel) receiving the proposal from the contractor. If you select contractor, then you will complete the assignment as if you are a contractor employee submitting a proposal to the government.

1. Examine the types of contracts and performance-based acquisition. Select the type of contract you would like to use for the vehicle purchase. (You will want to review Feldman, Ch. 16 and Compton Ch. 6. You will need to list, define, discuss and provide examples of the main three offered within the article: Fixed-Price, Cost-Reimbursement, Time-and-Materials (T&M), AND the two offered within Compton p.p. 66-70: Letter Contracts and Indefinite Delivery Contracts ?need to discuss all five! For Performance-based acquisition, review Compton Ch. 7). Finally, as the question requires, select and explain, the best type of contracts for the trucks and cars for DHS).
2. Evaluate the pros and cons of sealed bidding contracts and negotiated contracts, emphasizing which one would be best for this purchase. (p. 53-66 of the Compton text covers both sealed bidding and the negotiation process in depth, please use information from this source as well as Chapter 14 of Feldman. For sealed bidding Pros you can certainly discuss their common uses, p.p. 209-210, Feldman, and cons can be from p. 210 as well – second para. Also some of the Conditions for Sealed Bidding on p. of Compton, could be interpreted as either pros or cons. Do the same for the negotiated contract type and then select and explain which type of acquisition would be best for the assignment).
3. Determine the responsibilities of the contracting officer during the proposal evaluation process. (p. 55-58 of Compton has information relative to this CO question, also please use information from Feldman, Chapter 14, there are many areas within this chapter that will be good to use, for example, the very first para of p. 209, but really the entire chapter has great information to add).
4. Assess the requirements for performance-based acquisitions. (The entirety of Chapter 7 from Compton will help you answer this question; p. 77 will focus your scope in terms of general requirements. Make sure you discuss SOO and Quality Assurance Plans ? see Chapter 7 of Compton).
5. Create requirements for the vehicle purchase that could be included in a performance-based contract with rationale. (Now comes the application part of this assignment: remember as Compton p. 76 states, please concentrate on objectives)