When interpreting terms of a federal contract, dispute adjudicative forums may turn to extrinsic evidence of trade practice and custom to resolve ambiguities. Trade usage refers to the use of terms or language with such regularity in a particular vocation,
A federal contract interpretation claim may involve requests for the meaning of contractual words, determination of the manner in which the contractor must undertake performance or supply of missing terms. Since the Contract Disputes Act (CDA) does not define a
During the solicitation phase of a procurement, the government may disseminate information regarding the solicitation to prospective offerors. If the information is in writing, signed by the contracting officer, and provided to all prospective offerors, it contains the essential elements
Notifications and debriefings provided to offerors regarding the success or failure of their proposals play a key procedural role in negotiated procurements. For successful offerors, the contracting officer (CO) provides an executed contract or other such notice of award. Meanwhile,
The government establishes a Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) with qualified sources when it anticipates having repetitive needs for supplies or services. Federal Courts and Contract Appeals Boards have repeatedly held that a BPA is not a contract because it lacks
Federal agencies have broad discretion in determining whether to cancel a solicitation, provided they can establish a reasonable basis for their cancellation decision. The government may properly cancel a solicitation for various reasons anytime during the evaluation phase or even
Under the Small Business Act and the Office of Federal Procurement Policy Act, federal agencies must publish notices of proposed contract actions and modifications exceeding $25,000 on the System of Award Management (SAM) unless an exception listed in Federal Acquisition
When acquiring commercial products, the federal government must give preference to customary commercial practices. To implement this preference, the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) instructs the government to only use contract clauses that are consistent with customary commercial practices. One such
Bid protest adjudicative forums such as the Government Accountability Office (GAO) have consistently held that a proposal that fails to meet a material solicitation requirement is considered technically unacceptable and cannot form the basis of an award. When included in
It is well established that the U.S. government may only enter into contracts through the authorized actions of its Contracting Officers (COs), who have actual authority to bind the government. In contrast, however, contractors may be bound by the actions