A procurement policy manual for the Navy Field Contracting System (NFCS)

Abstract

This research effort explore the merit of developing a procurement policy manual for purchasing organizations within the Navy Field Contracting System (NFCS). The structure, content, uses, advantages, and methods for evaluating effectiveness found in the literature, as well as the generic characteristics of a procurement policy manual, are identified and discussed. These properties are then applied to Navy purchasing manuals and questionnaires received from participating contracting activities and the differences and similarities analyzed. The research concludes that procurement policy manuals are useful and Navy contracting organizations should be encouraged to develop and use them. Many Navy manuals are not well organized and are often too technical. The generic characteristics of desirable manuals should be incorporated into the planning stage of manual development. Recommendations include encouraging the use of the manuals, applying the generic characteristics, training the procurement policy specialists, measuring manual effectiveness, making the manuals a part of procurement training , and using the manuals to evaluate purchasing performance. Ideas for related research efforts complete this thesis.