Individuals or firms who enter a contract with any government department or agency to perform a specified task, provide labor and materials, or sell goods and services are known as federal contractors. A federal subcontractor is a business that works with another business that has direct government contracts.

Both federal contractors and subcontractors take on certain responsibilities while doing business with the federal government. Discrimination based on sex, race, color, national origin, religion, disability, or veteran status is prohibited under the law. Affirmative action is required when hiring people from historically discriminated-against groups or minority-owned enterprises.

The federal government needs to acquire products and services to keep all public and essential services such as those required for public safety, national security, health, infrastructure, and social services.

Transparency

The principle of transparency ensures that state entities contract through a public selection process that includes objective, transparent, fair, and complete rules that allow bidders to submit appropriate proposals as well as file objections, observations, questions, and/or clarifications to the contracting entity’s documents.

State agencies must hold public hearings to comply with the above, where proponents can express their concerns and submit questions, clarifications, and/or complaints.

Third-party documents and applications are also made public to ensure that the processes are carried out in a fair and equitable manner.

Economy

According to the economic principle, selection procedures should be arranged so that only the procedures that are strictly necessary and have connected terms and preclusive and urgent deadlines are used, guaranteeing that the least number of resources are used.

Before beginning the selection process, the awarding agency must ensure that it has the appropriate financial allocations and preliminary research in place to determine the contract’s aim.