The Do’s and Don’ts in Performing Your Government Contracts

As government contractors, you cannot freely do anything with your project the way you wanted it to be. You have guidelines to follow which are all in your contracts. To give you an idea, here are the do’s and don’ts in performing your government contracts.

FOLLOW THE SPECIFICATIONS.

Contracting officers have a very specific set of guidelines that government contractors should follow.

These people might not be the one who are the main reason why that project took place but for the fact that they have the authority to obligate the government’s spin and funds, then you shouldn’t defy them.

“We should be thankful that we are in a position to where somebody is calling us with the contract and opportunity that is not publicly posted to do a negotiation and a potential sole source.”

COMMUNICATE IN TERMS OF CHANGES.

Then, you should also communicate with your contracting officer if you want certain changes in your contract or there are parts that you find difficult to understand.

In most cases, when you do something that is not part of your contract, contracting officers will either not pay you or only pay the agreed payment based on the contract.

However, you can avoid it by writing all of your recommended changes in terms of a Request for Information and sending it to your contracting officers so that they can include the changes in your contract or exclude anything from the list of your responsibilities.

“If there’s a change of scope, you put it in the form of an RFI and you let them make the determination.”

STOP THE PROJECT.

The last thing that you should do is to stop the project if there are changes that are not part of your scope of work.

Don’t just do all of the things that are being ordered by the agency that you’re working with. Rather, communicate with your contracting officer and make sure that what you’re doing is still under your contract and if you are sure it is not, then temporarily stop your project.

“Don’t come back and ask for money for things that you took upon yourself without getting permission.”

Remember that the government and the contracting officer will just pay you if a project is done or a product or service is delivered according to their contract. Other problems that you might face in doing the project is not part of their problem. So, it is best to ask for the permission of your contracting officer first.