A Contracting Officer (CO or KO) is a person who can bind the United States government to a contract that is greater than the Micro-Purchase threshold. This is limited to the scope of authority delegated to the Contracting Officer by the head of the agency.
In the Department of Defense the acronym KO is used, instead of CO, not to be confused with Commanding Officer. The KO enters into, administers, or terminates contracts and makes related determinations and findings. The CO is a federal employee who is appointed in writing on an Standard Form (SF) 1402, Certificate of Appointment. Subsection 414(4) of Title 41, United States Code, requires agency heads to establish and maintain a procurement career management program and a system for the selection, appointment, and termination of appointment of contracting officers. Agency heads or their designees may select and appoint contracting officers and terminate their appointments. These selections and appointments shall be consistent with Office of Federal Procurement Policy’s (OFPP) standards for skill-based training in performing contracting and purchasing duties as published in OFPP Policy Letter No. 05-01, Developing and Managing the Acquisition Workforce, April 15, 2005. Please reference acquisition link under references section below for more detailed job description.
Famous quotes containing the words contracting and/or officer:
“When I hear the hypercritical quarreling about grammar and style, the position of the particles, etc., etc., stretching or contracting every speaker to certain rules of theirs ... I see that they forget that the first requisite and rule is that expression shall be vital and natural, as much as the voice of a brute or an interjection: first of all, mother tongue; and last of all, artificial or father tongue. Essentially your truest poetic sentence is as free and lawless as a lamb’s bleat.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“No officer should be required or permitted to take part in the management of political organizations, caucuses, conventions, or election campaigns. Their right to vote and to express their views on public questions, either orally or through the press, is not denied, provided it does not interfere with the discharge of their official duties. No assessment for political purposes on officers or subordinates should be allowed.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)