Question 1 (2/30). You are a rising star contract specialist in the Department of Troy, a federal agency that is subject to the FAR. Previously your agency did not include references to mediation or arbitration in its solicitation and contract documents. Your manager has asked you whether best practices would provide for such references to mediation and arbitration in your boiler plate terms and conditions. She asks you to prepare a memo wherein you describe the similarities and differences between the two methods generally and then specifically how they might be used in a government contracting context. Include any pertinent references to your texts and especially any authority the FAR gives for the use of mediation or arbitration.
Question #2 (20/30). Review the Hitt case. You are a staff member in the contracts office of the Washington Headquarters Services of the Department of Defense, and you attended the meeting with Ms. Bodnar on August 31, 2006. It’s the next day and your supervisor asks you to prepare a summary of the meeting in the form of a Price Negotiation Memorandum that meets the standards of the FAR. Set out the issues from the government’s perspective and indicate what, if any, research you recommend be performed in light of Ms. Badnor’s threat to pull her folks off the job. As of the time you are writing your memo her staff has not yet been pulled off, and you should discuss the negotiation strategies you recommend going forward.
Question #3 (8/30) Read the article “Tough Negotiation is not Coercion.” Prepare a memo that examines how the contracting officer’s method of achieving a change of the pass through rate represents integrative negotiation or distributive bargaining. Support your argument with citations from your texts.
