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B. Authority
1. General Authority to Contract
As a sovereign entity the United States has inherent authority to enter into contracts to fulfill Government needs. This authority to contract, however, is not unlimited. A Government contract must bean appropriate exercise of governmental power or duties, and it must not be otherwise prohibited by law.
2. Contracting Officer Authority
In general, the Government is bound only by Government agents acting within the actual scope of their authority to contract acts of Government agents that exceed their contracting authority do not bind the Government. Under the FAR, contracting authority is vested in the head of the agency. Within the Department of Defense, the heads of the agencies are the Secretaries of Defense, the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force. The head of the agency may establish subordinate contracting activities and delegate broad contracting authority to these activities. In turn, agency heads or their designees select and appoint Contracting Officers who must be formally appointed in writing and provided a warrant that details the scope of their authority. Contracting Officers may bind the Government only to the extent of the authority delegated to them through their warrant. Thus, to lawfully bind the Government in contract, agency officials must have express statutory or regulatory authority, or they must have received a formal delegation and appointment (e.g., a warrant) consistent with this express statutory or regulatory authority.
3. Unauthorized Commitments and Ratification
A Government official attempting to bind the Government in contract without proper authority to do so will create an unauthorized commitment An unauthorized commitment is an agreement that is nonbinding solely because the Government representative who made it lacked the authority to enter into that agreement. If an unauthorized commitment occurs, it can present significant fiscal and contract law concerns, but in certain circumstances it maybe appropriate fora lawfully-appointed Contracting Officer to ratify the unauthorized commitment after-the-fact. Ratification is the act of approving an unauthorized commitment, by an official who has the authority to do so, for the purpose of paying for supplies or services provided to the Government as a result of the unauthorized commitment. Depending upon the dollar amount at issue, the ratification may require higher headquarters approval.

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