Contract and procurement fraud
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- Intent to Be Legally Bound To be enforceable, the parties to a contract must intend to be legally bound. Agreement
- Form Permitted by Law
- Methods of Procurement
| Competent Parties
The parties to the agreement must have the legal right or capacity to make a contract This generally, means that the individual parties must be of lawful age and that other entities are properly and legally organised. Intent to Be Legally Bound To be enforceable, the parties to a contract must intend to be legally bound. Agreement To form a contract, the parties involved must agree to what the contract covers and the main terms of the deal. Generally, agreement is reached by one party’s acceptance of the other party’s offer. An offer is an expression to another person of a willingness to be legally bound to a legal obligation by the stated terms. An acceptance is an expression of agreement to an offer made by another party. Generally, to become effective, an acceptance must be communicated. Form Permitted by Law To be enforceable, a contract must be in a form permitted by law. For example, some types of contracts must be in writing to be enforced. Breach of Contract A victim of procurement fraud might be able to recover fraud losses by bringing a breach of contract action. A breach of contract occurs when one party fails to perform, or announces that it does not intend to perform, without just cause. If a party breaches, the other party may sue for damages—the loss caused by the other party’s failure to perform—or in some instances, for specific performance (i.e., an order from the court compelling the defaulting party to perform). Methods of Procurement There are various contracting methods that a procuring entity might use to acquire goods or services. The choice of method generally depends on the complexity of the procurement. Procurement methods range from using a purchase card (or p-card) for small-dollar, off-the shelf items to a negotiated multi-million-dollar contract for financial computer terminals. Although there are various methods of procurement, purchasers typically use processes that provide open and free competition. Specifically, contract awards result from: Competitive bidding using sealed bids Contracting by negotiation Simplified acquisition procedures Download 0.62 Mb. Share with your friends:
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