← Back to shelf

Desk reference

Contracts, firm-fixed-price, MAS, and GWACs

Instrument vocabulary for awards: contract, firm-fixed-price risk, and schedule vs buying paths.

1 / 3

Contract

A contract is a mutually binding legal relationship the seller to furnish supplies or services and the buyer to pay for them. In the FAR sense it includes written commitments that obligate the Government to spend appropriated funds — awards, orders that become effective by acceptance or performance, and bilateral modifications, among other instruments. , modifications, invoices, and post-award protests assume a binding relationship; pre-award protest work assumes a live competition and an operative . If you cannot point to an instrument — or to a solicitation defect you intend to challenge — you are still narrating upstream hope.

Watch for

Don’t confuse a contract with a grant or cooperative agreement under 31 U.S.C. 6301 et seq., a handshake, a slide deck, or an email that merely discusses future . It is not identical to a solicitation. Pre-award protests can challenge a solicitation or exclusion before a contract exists.

"Contract means a mutually binding legal relationship obligating the seller to furnish the supplies or services (including construction) and the buyer to pay for them. It includes all types of commitments that obligate the Government to an expenditure of appropriated funds and that, except as otherwise authorized, are in writing. … Contracts do not include grants and cooperative agreements covered by 31 U.S.C.6301, et seq."

2 / 3

Firm-fixed-price (FFP)

A firm-fixed-price () contract provides a price that is not adjusted based on the contractor’s cost experience. It places maximum cost risk and full for profit or loss on the contractor, and it creates strong incentive to control costs. When pricing and capture argue about risk, place FFP on the fixed end of a spectrum of types — then name the actual type (or mix) in the solicitation before modeling margin.

Watch for

Don’t treat FFP as a reimbursable , or assume cost overruns automatically become the Government’s problem. An FFP price is not “just an estimate the will fix later” unless a separate adjustment clause actually applies. FFP is also not the only alternative to cost-reimbursement — Part 16 includes T&M, labor-hour, incentive, EPA, and hybrid structures.

"A firm-fixed-price contract provides for a price that is not subject to any adjustment on the basis of the contractor’s cost experience in performing the contract. This contract type places upon the contractor maximum risk and full responsibility for all costs and resulting profit or loss."

3 / 3

MAS versus GWAC

() is the Federal Supply Schedule program for commercial offerings, with ordering procedures in FAR Subpart 8.4. A (GWAC) is a separate governmentwide task- or delivery-order contract for information technology — and NASA are examples, not synonyms for MAS. At , classify the buying path before chasing a brand: negotiated, MAS order, GWAC/ order, or another authorized method.

Watch for

Don’t treat MAS and GWAC as interchangeable names for one underlying contract. Commercial status under Part 12 does not automatically select MAS. A GWAC is not limited to its awarding agency’s own buyers in the way a single-agency IDIQ often is — but access, scope, and pools still must be checked.

Further reading

Browse chapters