con216 exam2 latest 2016 july

Name: ________________________

Date: ______________

CON 216

EXAM 2

Total possible points: 75

Part I: Multiple Choice (2 points each)

1. A protest may be a written objection to which of the following?

a. the cancellation of a solicitation

b. the termination or cancellation of an award of a contract

c. the award of a new contract

d. all of the above

2. Which of the following are types of alternative dispute resolution (ADR)?

a. arbitration, fact-finding, partnering

b. mediation, researching, discovery

c. arbitration, mediation, jury selection

d. none of the above

3. An equitable adjustment has__________.

a. a quantum

b. a purpose

c. an entitlement

d. both A and C

4. In a solicitation for the production of survival rafts, the navy provided detailed design specifications for the process by which the contractor was to bond the rubber seams. During testing, the seams separated at lower pressure levels than the contract specified. The navy is considering terminating the contract for default. What is the most likely outcome if the contractor challenges this action?

a. The contractor will prevail because the navy expressly warranted that the raft would meet all performance specifications.

b. The navy will prevail because the contractor bears the ultimate responsibility for any item it delivers.

c. The contractor will prevail if it can show that it followed the navy's manufacturing process precisely.

d. The navy will prevail because the contractor was an experienced manufacturer.

5. Which act gives an interested party judicial challenge in federal court?

a. Appropriations Act

b. Administrative Procedure Act

c. Competition in Contracting Act

d. Small Business Act

6. Which act allows the government to recognize the assignment of contracts as security for loans needed for defense contract performance?

a. Assignment of Claims Act

b. Authorization Act

c. Appropriations Act

d. none of the above

7. Which of the following can be participants in a protest?

a. defendant, plaintiff, judge

b. contracting officer, interested party, Government Accountability Office (GAO), federal courts

c. contracting officer, plaintiff, GAO

d. none of the above

8. Which of the following represents one of the most common methods of determining how much one should pay for an equitable adjustment?

a. actual cost

b. assumption

c. comparative

d. both B and C

9. __________ is/are reasonable grounds for an improper agency evaluation protest.

a. relaxation of the announced award criteria by the procuring agency

b. imposition of additional unannounced criteria

c. both A and B

d. none of the above

10.A solicitation defect may include which of the following?

a. denial of permission to the incumbent contractor to compete on the contract

b. ambiguity in the requirements being solicited

c. requests for more contractor support than previously obtained

d. none of the above

Part II: Fill-in-the-Blank(2 points each)

11.One common reason for a protest is improper exclusion from the _________________range.

12.There are three forums for filing a protest: _________________, _________________, and _________________.

13.If a party in a dispute doesn't like the decision issued from the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, their last appeal is with the _________________viawrit of certiorari.

14.List the steps involved in the assignment of claims process.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

15.A(n) _________________permits contractors to assign claims on government contracts to financing institutions as collateral for loans.

16.The government's first choice in a dispute resolution is to undergo_________________.

17._________________is a process in which a third party, called a conciliator, restores damaged relationships between parties by bringing them together, clarifying perceptions, and pointing out misconceptions.

18.When filing a protest, it is best to work with _________________before the situation escalates to involvethe GAO or the judicial courts.

19.A _________________ is a request for relief that seeks to initiate the disputes process.

20._________________is the act of an authorized government agent that formally determines that the supplies or services submitted by a contractor satisfactorily discharge the contractor's duty of performance under the contract.

21.The _________________ requires that important contractual agreements be reduced to writing if the parties wish to make the agreement legally enforceable.

22.That dispute/claim decision may then be appealed to the_________________or the _________________.

23.The procedures for filing an agency protest are as follows:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

24.Where a contractor's reasonable interpretation of contract requirements differs from the government's, but the contractor is ordered to perform to the higher government standard, the contractor is entitled to its _________________.

25.One of the drawbacks to filing a protest with the GAO is that, once a decision is made, the GAO lacks the_________________ to enforce the decision.

26.Suspected violations of the Procurement Integrity Act will not be heard by the GAO. Instead, the protestor must file a protest with the federal agency responsible for the procurement within _________________days of discovering the violation.

27.The steps for filing a protest are as follows:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

28.At any time during a protest, one or more parties may request assistance in the form of either negotiation assistance, where the GAO attorney offers to assist the parties in reaching an agreement on resolving the matter, or outcome prediction, where the GAO attorney advises the parties of the attorney's view of the likely outcome based on the record so that the likely unsuccessful party may take appropriate action to resolve the protest. These processes areexamples of _________________.

29.A protest filed as a judicial challenge in federal courts must go through the Court of _________________.

30.A(n)_________________ entitles the contractor to receive certain additional costs of performance, plus a reasonable profit on those costs.

31.A(n) _________________defect is a defect that existed at the time of government acceptance but that could not be detected via reasonable inspection.

Part III: True-or-False (1 point each)

32. No law compels compliance with the GAO, and every so often, an agency chooses not to implement the GAO opinion.

a. true

b. false

33. A subcontractor cannotfile a claim directly with the contracting officer.

a. true

b. false

34.A general change is one that is beyond the general scope of the contract and thus cannot be ordered by the contracting officer under the contract's changes clause.

a. true

b. false

35.A contracting officer may reconsider, withdraw, or rescind a final decision before the expiration of the appeals period.

a. true

b. false

36.The course of performance rule applies when one party is aware of how the other is interpreting a term, and acquiesces in that interpretation. When this happens, he or she is bound by that interpretation.

a. true

b. false

37.The burden of proof is on government, who is paying the adjustment. The government party must prove the amount of loss with sufficient certainty so that the determination of the amount of damages is based on more than mere speculation.

a. true

b. false

38.If the government drafts the problematic language in a contract, then the government is to blame for the inclusion of the language and must therefore yield to the contractor's legal interpretation of the language.

a. true

b. false

39.The government has the right only to inspect and reject work on a prescribed and contracted schedule.

a. true

b. false

40.A contractor is generally permitted to recover costs under the contract regarding which a government change, suspension, or breach occurred when the impact costs are incurred on other contracts.

a. true

b. false

41. A constructive change occurs when government actions result in a change to the contract that was not authorized by a contract modification.

a. true

b. false

42. The contracting officer has an obligation to issue a final decision on a claim that exceeds $100,000 if the claim is uncertified or defectively certified.

a. true

b. false

43.An ambiguity may be patent where a word or phrase has two obviously different interpretations or where two parts of the contract say very different things and are internally inconsistent.

a. true

b. false

44.Substantial compliance gives the contractor the right to attempt to cure defective performance.

a. true

b. false