Federal contracting officials have a detailed comprehensive resource in the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) to guide them through the arduous contracting process; however, until now there
has been no such counterpart for state and local government agencies. Contracting for Services in State and Local Government Agencies is the first reference book of its kind specifically
designed to provide state and local administrators with a concise authoritative resource on contracting for services.
In preparation for writing this book, author William Sims Curry contacted all 50 state governments, as well as a large selection of city and county governments, and asked them to participate in
the development of templates for Requests for Proposals (RFPs) and service contracts. These agencies were asked to complete a questionnaire and provide copies of their RFP and service contract
templates. Out of their contributions, the best features from each were incorporated into the Best Practices RFP and the Service Contract, which are presented in this volume. The templates can
be readily downloaded from an included CD-ROM.
In addition to these model documents, other techniques and tools are introduced to assist agencies in improving their services contracting programs. The book is presented in the sequence of the
contracting cycle, beginning with advance contract planning and proceeding to pre-solicitation, solicitation, proposal evaluation, negotiation, and award through contract administration and
closeout.
By adopting the techniques in this book and using the model templates, state and local agencies will be able to effectively contract for services, get the best price available, and get
important jobs completed on time.
