Assignment: Contingency Contracting Handbook

Assignment: Contingency Contracting Handbook

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Assignment: Contingency Contracting Handbook

Question Description
I’m working on a Business exercise and need support.

STUDENT 1 (Amy):

In reading our textbook (Defense Contingency Contracting Handbook) this week and the other links provided, I found a lot of good information on the head of contracting activity (HCA) and the senior contracting official (SCO). The HCA has many responsibilities and roles and is appointed by the Department of Energy Senior Procurement Executive. The HCA is the entity responsible for putting in writing who the SCO will be. The HCA also defines what the SCO’s area of responsibilities and authorities are. The SCO has contingency contracting officers (CCOs) under them. The CCOs are appointed by the HCA. However, the HCA can grant the SCO power to give regional contracting centers (RCCs) various authorities. For example, the SCO may allow the RCCs to assign their own CCOs under their RCC chief.

The authorities granted to the HCA can be delegated out if deemed necessary. When considering the management of a contract, the HCA is ultimately held responsible. However, delegation appears to be a tool used to help with the contract management. The HCA can be viewed as an overseer of the contract and can delegate authorities to the SCO and various responsibilities and authorities can trickle down from there. The SCO acts as the support line for the HCA in monitoring a contract and ensuring all of the required rules and regulations are being met. The SCO has a long list of responsibilities including but not limited to overseeing contract programs and contract closeouts, conducting reviews, coordinating audits, acting as the chairman of the Joint Contracting Support Board (JCSB), performs as a member of the Joint Requirements Review Board (JRRB), and record keeping.

References:

Acquisitions Guide: Head of Contracting Acitivty (HCA) Authority, Functions, and Responsibilities: https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2016/06/f32/PF2007-17a.pdf

Defense Contingency Contracting Handbook (DCCH)- Chapter 2: https://www.acq.osd.mil/dpap/ccap/cc/jcchb/DCC_Handbook_v.5_April2017.pdf

STUDENT 2 (Dave): Head of Contracting Activity (HCA) are officials who have been designated by the President or by the Secretary, as the Heads of Operating Units. Such officials are designated as the HCA for procurements initiated in support of the procurement activities of that operating unit. The Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Secretary for Administration has been designated as the HCA for procurements initiated in support of the programs and activities of the Office of the Secretary and all other Secretarial Offices and Departmental Offices.

Authority that has been delegated to an HCA will come in one of two forms, non-delegable or delegable. Non-delegable, as the name implies, is authority that cannot be re-delegated by the HCA to someone else. Typically, these are reserved for instances deemed to be of such importance or sensitivity that personal attention, expertise, or involvement by the HCA is mandatory. Conversely, a delegable authority is one that maybe re-delegated to another individual. When authority is re-delegated in this manner, it is not meant to imply that the authority is relinquished by the HCA.

The Senior Contracting Official, or Officer, is the staff official that has been designated by a service head of contracting activity to execute theater support contracting authority for a specific command and/or operational area. With their appointment, the SCO is delegated certain authorities to include the appointment of contracting officers under their control. Furthermore, SCOs also may delegate certain authorities to regional contracting centers (RCCs), including appointment of Contracting Officers under the control of the RCC Chief.

STUDENT 3 (Derek): The DOD and its Service Branches are each considered executive agencies. Congress, in the execution of its resource allocation process, first commits funds to each of these executive agencies in the form of a budget authorization. The budget authorization is not only a determination of how much potential funding the executive agency could be appropriated but also for which express purpose and period of time the executive agency is authorized to spend those funds on. This is where an executive agency receives its budgetary authority. But while executive agencies receive budgetary authority to spend funds, they do not have the authority to obligate those funds or obligate the government contractually in accordance with the Antideficiency Act.

The Code of Federal regulation grants this authority to contracting officers the CFR instructs the head of executive agencies to appoint a Head of Contracting Activity (HCA), who, in turn, is responsible for managing the contracting activities of that executive agency. The HCA oversees contracting to ensure it complies with applicable statutes, regulations, and sound business practices. The HCA then appoints Senior Contracting Officials who oversee contracting activities for specific command components or contracting activities within an operational area.

The Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology represent the HCA for the Army, represented by the Army Materiel Command (AMC). Below the AMC are various Senior Contracting Officers such as the Military Installation Contracting Command (MICC), which operates Installation contracting command offices in each Army base, providing contract support for base operations. The Army provides regional contract support to the Army and GCCs through its Army Contracting Commands (ACC) and Contracting Support Brigades (CSB).

Assignment: Contingency Contracting Handbook

Assignment: Contingency Contracting Handbook

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation

Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality

Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes

I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy

For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.