Download Free Contracting Out Government Services Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online Contracting Out Government Services and write the review.

The dramatic growth of government over the course of the twentieth century since the New Deal prompts concern among libertarians and conservatives and also among those who worry about government’s costs, efficiency, and quality of service. These concerns, combined with rising confidence in private markets, motivate the widespread shift of federal and state government work to private organizations. This shift typically alters only who performs the work, not who pays or is ultimately responsible for it. “Government by contract” now includes military intelligence, environmental monitoring, prison management, and interrogation of terrorism suspects. Outsourcing government work raises questions of accountability. What role should costs, quality, and democratic oversight play in contracting out government work? What tools do citizens and consumers need to evaluate the effectiveness of government contracts? How can the work be structured for optimal performance as well as compliance with public values? Government by Contract explains the phenomenon and scope of government outsourcing and sets an agenda for future research attentive to workforce capacities as well as legal, economic, and political concerns.
This second edition of Contracting for Services in State and Local Government Agencies provides state-of-the-art tools for best practice in the procurement of services at state and local levels, from initial stages through to completion. Including lively case studies and research conducted with state and local agencies across the United States, this book provides management advice and tips on compliance to reduce costs, select the best-qualified contractors, manage contractors’ performance, and prevent corruption and waste. Utilizing the results of new research in all fifty states, author William Sims Curry offers updated best-practice documents, methodologies, and templates including: a Request for Proposal (RFP), a scorecard for proposals to select the best-qualified contractor, a toolkit for meeting socioeconomic contracting goals without compromising price, quality, or on-time delivery, and a Model Services Contract (MSC). Special consideration is given to obtaining services and products in states of emergency. Several additional resources for practitioners are available online, including sample contracts and a straightforward, inexpensive tool for tracking contractors’ progress and cost management. The roadmap and templates contained in this book and available online to readers will prove essential to state and local government agency contracting professionals and other officials and employees called upon to participate in the drafting of solicitations, writing sole source justifications, writing scopes of work, serving on advance contract planning and source selection teams, recommending award of contracts, or assisting in the management of those contracts.
In this study outsourcing is defined as the organizational practice of contracting for services from an external entity while retaining control over assets and oversight of the services being outsourced. In the 1980s, a number of factors led to a renewed interest in outsourcing. For private sector organizations, outsourcing was identified as a strategic component of business process reengineering-an effort to streamline an organization and increase its profitability. In the public sector, growing concern about the federal budget deficit, the continuing long-term fiscal crisis of some large cities, and other factors accelerated the use of privatization measures (including outsourcing for services) as a means of increasing the efficiency of government.
The second edition of Government Contracting: Promises and Perils picks up where the first edition’s mission left off: exposing fraud, incompetence, waste, and abuse (FIWA) and analyzing corruption, mismanagement, and ineptitude that defile government contracting. The first edition thoroughly outlined procurement throughout the contracting cycle including initial planning, contractor selection, contract administration, contract closeout, and auditing. This significantly revised new edition provides additional much-needed guidance on contracting documents, management tools, and processes for addressing negative influences on government contracting, including an improved approach to evaluating proposals. Specific guidance for avoiding FIWA is provided for government officials and employees, government agencies, and government contractors, and practical solutions to problems faced by individuals and organizations involved in government contracting are intended for both practitioner and pedagogical applications. The "Government Procurement Corruption Wall of Shame" that was introduced in the first edition to illustrate contracting perils such as conflicts of interest, duplicity, favoritism, incompetence, kickbacks, and protests is continued in the second edition, and cases illustrating the existence of FIWA in government contracting have been thoroughly updated. Contracting documents and contract management tools are provided on a website designed to accompany the book. Written at the graduate level and specifically intended for state, local, federal, and international government procurement activities, this textbook is required reading for public procurement, contract management, business, and public administrations courses.
Complex Contracting draws on core social science concepts to provide wide-ranging practical advice on how best to manage complex acquisitions. Using a strong analytical framework, the authors assess contract management practices, suggesting strategies for improvement and ways to avoid the pitfalls of managing contracts for large and sophisticated projects. An in-depth analysis of the US Coast Guard's Deepwater program is included to illustrate ways to respond to real-world contracting challenges. This high-profile and controversial case consisted of a projected 25-year, $24 billion contract through which the US Coast Guard would buy a system of new boats, aircraft, communications, and control architecture to replace its aging fleet. The authors explore the reasons why this program, launched with such promise, turned out so poorly, and apply the lessons learned to similarly complex contracting scenarios. This engaging and accessible book has broad applicability and will appeal to policymakers, practitioners, scholars and students.
Reveals the formidable organization of intelligence outsourcing that has developed between the U.S. government and private companies since 9/11, in a report that reveals how approximately seventy percent of the nation's funding for top-secret tasks is now being funneled to higher-cost third-party contractors. 35,000 first printing.
Elements of Government Contracting combines two previous books, Elements of Contract Formation and Elements of Contract Administration, to make one comprehensive resource. This convenient reference covers the entire procurement spectrum from the beginning of the process through claims and disputes in a straightforward, easy-to-read manner. The first part of this book explains the important elements and issues involved in the formation of government contracts, including the two primary methods of contracting. The next part addresses the factors critical to contract inception, performance and completion, and outlines the rules for contractors in the administration of a government contract. Fully updated, Elements of Government Contracting includes sample letters to contracting officers, as well as practical tips at the end of each chapter. In addition, it has an appendix on how to get a Multiple Award Schedule Contract and avoid pitfalls in performance.
This widely praised work provides a framework for the many voices calling for the reaffirmation of democratic values, citizenship, and service in the public interest. The expanded edition includes an all-new chapter that addresses the practical issues of applying these ideals in actual, real-life situations. "The New Public Service, Expanded Edition" is organized around a set of seven core principles: serve citizens, not customers; seek the public interest; value citizenship and public service above entrepreneurship; think strategically, act democratically; recognize that accountability isn't simple; serve, rather than steer; and value people, not just productivity. The book asks us to think carefully and critically about what public service is, why it is important, and what values ought to guide what we do and how we do it. It celebrates what is distinctive, important and meaningful about public service and considers how we might better live up to those ideals and values. All students and serious practitioners in public administration and public policy should read this book. While debates about public policy issues will surely continue, this compact, clearly written volume provides an important framework for public service based on and fully integrated with citizen discourse and the public interest.
Citizen Participation in the Age of Contracting is based on a simple premise: in democracies, power originates with citizens. While citizen participation in government remains a central tenet of democracy, public service delivery structures are considerably more complex today than they were fifty years ago. Today, governments contract with private organizations to deliver a wide array of services. Yet, we know very little about how citizens influence government decisions and policies in the "hollow state." Based on nearly 100 interviews with public and private managers, our findings about the state of citizen participation in contract governance are somewhat disheartening. Public and private organizations engaged citizens in a number of ways. However, most of their efforts failed to shift the power structure in communities and did not give citizens a chance to fundamentally shape local priorities and programs. Instead, elected officials and professional staff largely maintained control over significant policy and administrative decisions. Widespread, but narrow in their forms and impact, the participation practices we uncovered did not live up to the ideals of democracy and self-governance. Citizen Participation in the Age of Contracting is suitable for those who study public administration, as well as in other closely related fields such as nonprofit management and organizational behavior.
Everything You Need to Know About Government Contract Types As the world's single largest buyer of goods and services, the federal government has many ways to structure its procurements. Different situations and conditions often determine the best vehicle for a particular purchase. Contracting officers must assess a wide range of factors to determine which contract type will provide the government the best value and the least risk. The Complete Guide to Government Contract Types provides a comprehensive overview of the key government contract vehicles and types: fixed-price, cost-reimbursement, incentive, and other (which includes letter, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, and time-and-material contracts). The author first explains the selection process for contract vehicles, which is the basis for selecting the appropriate contract type for the work in question. He then presents a comprehensive, in-depth analysis of each contract type, explaining how each works best to meet certain types of requirements and conditions. This is an essential resource for both contracting officers and contractors seeking to understand and work effectively within the nuances of contract selection and compliance.