Public Contracting

Course Description

A survey of public contract law and the differences from commercial contract law; including clear record keeping for audits, overseeing activities of sub-contractors, and the impact for violation and breach of contract.

Learning Outcomes

• Understand how specific legal sources govern public contract law, emphasizing the particular roles of agency regulation, statutory application and judicial interpretation.
• Understand the high standards of conduct required of the parties dealing in public contracts and the relation to public trust and confidence, therein.
• Understand the inspection procedures and their effects as they relate to the government oversight of work performed and goods provided pursuant to public contracts.
• Understand the requirements of open and clear record keeping practices, their practical effects on the parties to public contracts and how they assure public trust and confidence in the process.
• Define and discuss contract defaults relating to defective goods or services, progress delays and other provisional breaches.
• Explain the process of terminating a contract, the specific requirements and procedures that must be followed and the risks and potential adverse consequences to all parties involved.
• Explain the unique government process of terminating a contract for convenience and the public and government interests it is intended to protect.
• Understand the finality which flows from a termination and how resulting damages are managed.
• Fully comprehend the sharp differences between private and public contracts and the recurring theme of public trust and confidence as it relates to such contrasts.
• Synthesis all topics surveyed and display an understanding of their interconnecting relationships.