Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals: analysis of sustained decisions on DOD supply contract disputes.

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to identify deficiencies in the Federal Government's acquisition process through an analysis of ASBCA decisions for the period 1981 through 1985. The study focused upon Department of Defense contract default terminations whose conversion to terminations for the convenience of the Government resulted from Board decisions. The essence of the study was to determine if meaningful conclusions could be drawn from the analysis that could be used to improve the acquisition process. Using this research methodology several deficiencies were found, such as, actions and inactions by the acquisition team that waived the Government's right to subsequently pursue a default termination, lack of communications and basic contract knowledge, inadequate training, and a general misunderstanding of the substantial compliance aspects in contracts requiring first article units. Additional research is required, however this study concluded that analysis of sustained ASBCA appeals could be a useful technique for making improvements to the acquisition process.