The Department of Defense recently published a new guide to Other Transactions Authority (OTA) contracts.  

The guide attempts to answer a number of questions associated with the policies and practices surrounding OTAs. It partially succeeds, but it also falls short of providing the details both contracting officers in government and industry representatives need to use OTAs with confidence and alacrity.

Two helpful things the guidance makes clear are that OTAs are in fact contracts and that they are still likely to be very complicated contracts.

There is a perception in some quarters that OTAs are a magic wand that can eliminate the difficulties of doing business with the government.  The guide implicitly refutes that premise as it correctly catalogues the many details anyone contemplating an OTA vehicle has to consider.

OTAs have real virtues, but they basically just substitute the world of commercial contracting for the world of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) contracting.  Anyone who has ever attempted to read a commercial contract for say a real estate sale or for cellphone service has some idea of how complex a commercial contract can be.

OTAs can simplify doing business with the government substantially, but a good contract is a good contract and a bad contract is a bad contract, independent of whether it is FAR based or an OTA.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/frankkendall/2019/01/03/the-new-other-transactions-authority-guide-helpful-but-not-enough