Vendor's rights to termination if govt breaches agreement?

[ji20874]

2 hours ago, NewbieFed said:

...it remains more of a theoretical question...

Newbie,

I am trying to remember whether the PSC makes any difference or has any importance.  It might be a rhetorical question.  The NAICS code might matter because that sets the small business size limitation, and for 8(a) contracts might limit the field to certain players, but does the PSC make any difference to anyone?  Who cares about the PSC?

[Vern Edwards]

15 hours ago, ji20874 said:

I am trying to remember whether the PSC makes any difference or has any importance... Who cares about the PSC?

Presumably, Congress and executive branch policymakers and planners. It is management information about what the government buys.

See, for example, the following from a 2008 report by the Congressional Budget Office, "Contractors' Support of U.S. Operations in Iraq  (August 2008)":

Quote

Product and service codes, though still general, are more specific than NAICS in the context of government procurement...

CBO's analysis of contractors' functions in the Iraq theater is also hindered by the fact that data on about $19 billion in contract obligations have not been categorized by function, have not been entered in the FPDSNG database, or both. Almost all obligations made by JCC-I/A and entered in FPDS-NG were coded under the nonspecific product and service code "miscellaneous" and the NAICS code "other general government support," even though those obligations were probably used to procure a wide but identifiable variety of products and services. In addition, contract data provided directly to CBO by JCC-I/A and USAID were neither recorded in FPDS-NG nor classified by function. Consequently, without investigating each of those uncategorized contract actions, CBO cannot classify the functions provided by about one-fifth of obligations for contracts performed in the Iraq theater over the 2003-2007 period.

Notwithstanding those limitations, grouping contracts by FPDS-NG product and service codes provides some insight into the breadth of work that contractors perform in the Iraq theater, as well as a rough indication of the functions that contractors most often provide (see Figure 3). From 2003 through 2007, U.S. government agencies obligated funds to perform 99 of 102 possible principal product and service codes. 9 Total obligations for each of those categories ranged from only a few thousand dollars to billions of dollars. CBO estimates that, on the basis of contract classifications in FPDS-NG, nearly 80 percent of categorized U.S. obligations for contractors' activities in the Iraq theater over that period were for services.

Emphasis added.

When you buy half-a-trillion dollars a year worth of stuff, planners and budget makers like to know what it is—for example, what your military needs and buys when it goes to war. For other mentions of use of the PSCs, see Congressional Research Service, Defense Acquisitions: How and Where DOD Spends Its Contracting Dollars.

 https://www.everycrsreport.com/files/20180702_R44010_3dbc3cecbdbf9321a06cd672ead10348033320c8.pdf