Term Procurement vs. Acquisition

[Flo]

Does anyone know the difference (if any) between the terms procurement and acquisition?  In my early research I was told that they are the same but fewer people now use "procurement".  thoughts?

[Matthew Fleharty]

See FAR 2.101:

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“Acquisition” means the acquiring by contract with appropriated funds of supplies or services (including construction) by and for the use of the Federal Government through purchase or lease, whether the supplies or services are already in existence or must be created, developed, demonstrated, and evaluated. Acquisition begins at the point when agency needs are established and includes the description of requirements to satisfy agency needs, solicitation and selection of sources, award of contracts, contract financing, contract performance, contract administration, and those technical and management functions directly related to the process of fulfilling agency needs by contract.

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“Procurement” (see “acquisition”).

 

[Guest Vern Edwards]

A little historical background:

Until 1978, agencies used the term procurement to encompass contracting functions. Thus, there was an Armed Services Procurement Regulation (ASPR), a Federal Procurement Regulation, and a NASA Procurement Regulation, among others. Then, in 1978, DOD decided that acquisition was a better term, the use of which supposedly communicated that contracting was a part of a broader set of functions, such as specification of requirements and program management. So on April 11, 1978, DOD published Directive 5000.35, which renamed the Armed Services Procurement Regulation as the Defense Acquisition Regulation. See 43 Fed. Reg. 15150. Among other things the directive said:

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§ 160.3 Definitions.

(a) Acquisition. Any relationship entered into to acquire property or services for the direct benefit or use of the Department of Defense to include the management and business functions and disciplines involved in establishing and continuing the relationship.

(b) Contracts. A function including tasks, skills and activities essential in conducting contractual relationships in the acquisition of property and services by the Department of Defense. The term "contracts" shall replace the term "procurement" as used in the context of an acquisition function throughout the Department.

(c) Procurement. The term "procurement" shall not be used to identify functions of the Department of Defense to acquire property and services except as relates to the budgetary process.

The Federal Procurement Regulation and the NASA Procurement Regulation remained unchanged in that regard.

When the FAR was published in 1983, it used the term acquisition instead of procurement, and FAR Part 2 did not define procurement at all. But despite best efforts, the term procurement was too deeply entrenched to be eliminated entirely, and so on January 10, 2001, the FAR councils bowed to custom and added the current definition of procurement to FAR 2.101 in order to eliminate any confusion on the part of the persistently clueless. See FAC 97-22, 66 Fed. Reg. 2117.

[bob7947]

As Vern mentioned it is at:  FAC 97-22, FAR Case 1999-403