What is Unique about the Government Contract
Course Info
PriceCPD Points 1
Competency- C2: Professional Skills (0.5)
- C4: Substantive Law (0.5)
Courses by this Author
This seminar examines how government contracts differ from other species. Government contracts may walk, talk and quack like contracts, but they are the platypuses of the commercial world.
The seminar covers the following:
1. Defining government contracts
2. Three differences:
- limits and discretions
- objectives
- scrutiny
3. Summary and conclusion
Author Profile
Course Summary
This seminar examines how government contracts differ from other species. Government contracts may walk, talk and quack like contracts, but they are the platypuses of the commercial world.
The seminar covers the following:
1. Defining government contracts
2. Three differences:
- limits and discretions
- objectives
- scrutiny
3. Summary and conclusion
Course Details
Like humans and chimpanzees, 98% of contractual DNA is shared between contracts involving a government party and those involving no government party. The principles of offer, acceptance and consideration apply to the same extent when one party is a government agency. However there also key differences. In the residual 2% lie risks and opportunities for both parties. This presentation will consider unique aspects of the government contract that advisers to both government agencies and the private sector should be aware of. It will address the sources of and limits on the government’s contracting power, the nature of government entities and who can bind the government, the peculiar nature of grants and public utilities and the principle that contracts cannot fetter executive or legislative action.