Basis for CICA analysis - modification

[joel hoffman]

  

On 4/13/2019 at 8:39 AM, C Culham said:

Finally the comment I appreciate the most in this thread.   

 

The best approach - moving from "I think" to "factual reference" with regard to all the venues that can offer insight - GAO, BCA and the courts.

 

A KO who doesn’t seek the advice of legal and other advisors on the acquisition team for non-routine issues or actions is a fool. The precious FAR encourages and requires it , as necessary.

As for applicable caselaw and GAO references, Administration of Government Contracts by Nash and Cibinic has detailed discussion on  scope of the contract and scope of the competition, replete with references.

It just doesn’t cover the situation where determining whether adding proposed work is in or out scope of a contract when out of scope supplemental agreement has previously added a separate scope to the contract in question. 

Then, the TEAM needs to use critical thinking and inferential thinking skills. There isn’t always a magic cookbook for 1102’s to look up an answer in. 

The best general book references that I’ve invested in are Administration of Government Contracts and Formation of Government Contracts, and have read some of the other related books by Profs Ralph Nash and John Cibinic or latest collaborators (Cibinic died a few years ago). I don’t have ready access to the legal pubs and on-line legal library resources or monthly caselaw subscriptions anymore in retirement.  Our legal library was a fabulous resource. One can certainly browse the internet for the various Boards, GAO and Federal Court Decisions . 

If  you live or work  near a Federal Courthouse, they used to have decent law libraries as well. Ours in Mobile was next door to our offices. 

Of course, I also had access to our legal office with some great and some mediocre attorneys. We had a law library with hard copy references and the lawyers have on-line access and subscriptions to the legal references. 

Nash and Cibinic Report (with Vern Edwards) is, of course, a great reference.