Federal Acquisition Regulation
As with any other regulation, the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) has been promulgated through the legal regulatory process. This includes publication of proposed rules in the Federal Register and receipt of comments from the public before issuing the regulation. The FAR is considered to have the force and effect of law, thus Contracting Officers have no authority on their own to deviate from the FAR. The supplements to the FAR have been issued following the same process and must also be followed without deviation.
This does not mean that preparation of a contract is a simple matter of cut and paste. The regulations attempt to provide for every possible situation and acquisition from the purchase of paperclips to the acquisition of battleships. As a result, the FAR and its supplements permit a substantial variation. The Contracting Officer and the contractor must seek to achieve their sometimes conflicting goals while following the specific requirements of the regulations. As with any complex document (in book form, Title 48 of the CFR requires several shelves), the FAR and its supplements can be interpreted differently by different people. The reader is cautioned that, as stated above, this is a non-intuitive, complex subject, and the advice of someone knowledgeable in the field will often be required.
Read more about this topic: Government Procurement In The United States, Law, Statutes and Regulations
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