Buyers, contracting officers, primes, and subcontractors

After this lesson you should be able to tell a requiring office from a contracting officer, explain that only a contracting officer with delegated authority can bind the Government, and decide whether your company would perform as a prime or as a subcontractor on a notice you stored in AsherGate.

Names and titles on a notice still have to be checked against the files.

An agency office can describe a need. That office is not automatically the buyer. In the FAR, a contracting officer is a person with authority to enter into, administer, and/or terminate contracts and to make related determinations and findings. The term includes certain authorized representatives acting inside the authority the contracting officer delegated.

Contracting officers may bind the Government only to the extent of the authority delegated to them. They must receive written instructions on those limits, and information about the limits must be readily available to the public and to agency personnel. No contract is entered into unless the contracting officer ensures that applicable law, executive orders, regulations, and required clearances have been met.

Contracting officers are responsible for effective contracting, for seeing that contract terms are followed, and for safeguarding the Government’s interests. They must ensure funds are available, treat contractors impartially, and may ask specialists for advice. They also designate a contracting officer’s representative (COR) in writing on many contracts. A COR is a Government employee unless agency rules allow otherwise, and a COR may not make commitments or changes that affect price, quality, quantity, delivery, or other contract terms.

A prime contractor works directly with the Government, manages any subcontractors, and is responsible for seeing that the work in the contract is completed. SBA states that to become a prime contractor you must first register your business in the System for Award Management. FAR 4.1102 generally requires offerors and quoters to be registered in SAM at the time an offer or quotation is submitted, with listed exceptions.

A subcontractor does not contract with the agency for that work. FAR Part 44 defines a subcontractor as any supplier, distributor, vendor, or firm that furnishes supplies or services to or for a prime contractor or another subcontractor. A subcontract is a contract entered into by a subcontractor to furnish supplies or services for performance of a prime contract or another subcontract, including purchase orders. SBA describes the same split in plain language: subcontractors work for other contractors, which lets a firm participate without selling directly to the agency.

AsherGate does not appoint a contracting officer, file SAM registration, or decide whether you should be a prime. Use the notice to copy the issuing office and any named contracting officer. Keep your planned performance role with the draft files, not as a form in this lesson.

Using the Ridgeline story below, the RFQ names Coconino Public Lands Contracting Office as the issuing office, Contracting Officer Priya Nandakumar as the person who will award, and Ranger Ellis Crowe as COR for site access only. The COR line in the file says that person cannot change quantity, price, or delivery.

Ridgeline would perform as prime and name an installer as subcontractor. Store RFQ AG-ROLE-26-1022 in an AsherGate draft. Do not treat a COR email as an order, and do not send a quotation from this workspace.