Contracting for Services in State and Local Government Agencies: Best Practices for Public Procurement

by William Sims Curry

Overview

Contracting for Services in State and Local Government Agencies: Best Practices for Public Procurement, Third Edition provides state-of-the-art tools for best practice in the procurement of services at state and local levels, throughout the procurement cycle. Including lively case studies and research conducted with state and local agencies across the United States, this award-winning 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 across states, cities, counties, and institutes of higher learning, this third edition offers 18 all-new best-practice documents as well as updated methodologies and templates including but not limited to: a full-length and short form request for proposal (RFP), a full-length and short form pro forma contract (PFC), a letter contract, a sample estimate at completion, a contract amendment template, and a form for evaluation of proposals. Special consideration is given to obtaining services and products during states of emergency. Several additional resources for instructors and professionals are available online, including templates and PowerPoint slides.

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781032306148
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	09/09/2022
Series:	Public Administration and Public Policy
Edition description:	3rd ed.
Pages:	474
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

William Sims Curry is president of WSC Consulting, a small business specializing in consulting on government procurement. Curry served as an Air Force systems procurement officer and was employed in purchasing management for prime contractors on NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, the Department of Energy's Positron Electron Project, and numerous Department of Defense programs. He has authored three books and numerous articles and research papers on government procurement. Curry is a Certified Professional Contracts Manager and a Fellow by the National Contract Management Association.

Table of Contents

1. Research Conducted on Best Practices for Public Procurement, 2. Introduction, Advance Procurement Planning, and the Procurement Cycle, 3. Socioeconomic and Competitive Procurement, 4. Solicitation Documents – Information for Prospective Contractors, 5. Management of Pre-Proposal Communications and Evaluation of Proposals, 6. Protests, 7. Contract Negotiations, Ethics, and Conflicts of Interest, 8. Contract Document, 9. Contract Terms and Conditions, 10. Short Form Contracts, Short Form RFPs, Emergencies, and Letter Contracts, 11. Contract Review, Execution, and Audit, 12. Contract Administration and Closeout

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

… a guide for government officials who want to make sure that the deals they seek to secure with private businesses aren't ones that lead to poor decisions and corruption. On the government side, contracts should always defend public interest and avoid wasteful spending while maintaining a level of quality, and William Sims Curry writes on how to avoid the worst of decisions with simple principles and how to avoid being exploited by private industry. … a must for any government official.
—James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief, Midwest Book Review, in Library Bookwatch, March 2011

Editorial Reviews

"Curry has written a book of both practical and academic importance. He provides a how-to for state and local government managers that takes into account the best practices in government contracting and procurement. The text includes templates and planning documents for many of the important stages of the contracting process. For scholars, Curry unpacks a complex process that will encourage more than a decade of thoughtful investigation and lead to useful theoretic insights." –Jessica N. Terman, George Mason University, USA

"With the relative paucity of state and local guides for service contracting out there, Curry does much more than justice to the contracting field in those two venues. As someone with twenty-five years in federal contracting, I suggest that federal practitioners might also use this publication in the conduct of their craft. I used the previous edition for teaching contracting students and found it full of exemplars, documentation and practical examples which could be applied to any CO’s particular situation and infused with federal contract law to assist federal practitioners in understanding why. I find this new edition even more useful in this way. Thank you Mr. Curry for the update of a timely, comprehensive and extremely useful publication!" – Frank Spampinato, Old Dominion University, USA

From the Publisher