Page 14 - AASBO EDGE Winter 2023

CONTRACT MANAGEMENT

BY GARY BARKMAN, ACBS, NIGP-CPP, CPPB
Best Practices for Contract

Management Considerations
Gary Barkman

This is a topic I receive several questions about, Contract Type and Developing the Contract and
when it comes to working with individual district lastly, Monitoring the Performance.
contracts or cooperative contracts.
The above cycle is just one example or interpretation
“What are some best practices for managing of the steps involved with managing a contract, so
the contract?” “How do I know if the contract let’s look at the first step, “Analysis.” I believe it’s a
is working correctly or not?” “Who should be good idea to always consider contract management
managing the contract?” “Where do I start with during the analysis stage, so that those involved
managing the contract?” These are just a few of with monitoring the performance have a basic
the questions received when it comes to contract idea of how the contract is going to work and what
management. the suppliers are responsible for. Remember, you
control the contract, how it works, the steps to be
Let’s face it, contract management is not a topic considered, when monitoring the performance of
that’s often discussed but always ends up being a the contract, so why not include “user friendly”
topic requested for future conferences or bi-monthly steps that exemplify efficiency for monitoring the
meetings, so let’s get some basics out of the way. contract performance. Most contracts that fail do
I’ll be the first to acknowledge that “contract so because thought was not given to this part of
management” is an area where procurement people the process.
fall short, so to speak, when it comes to using the
contract. Having said that, I would add that, if If you’ve included everything needed to assist you
done correctly, contract management should be a in getting from point “A” to point “B” with the
great tool to help gauge the success of the contract least amount of resistance, you should have some
or discover the flaws embedded in your contract form of a viable contract. The reason is simple.
or a contract you’re utilizing. You have developed a guideline that considered
“contract management” in the beginning stage.
First off, people need to realize that we really
shouldn’t wait until the contract is awarded The other steps to the contract management cycle
to consider the “contract management” piece. are just as important, but now you’ve developed

Contract management should be considered right a guideline that has considered this process from
up front when procurement does the statistical the onset and monitoring performance should run
analysis of the contract – here’s how it works. a bit smoother.

One piece to the procurement puzzle is the Specifying the need and identifying contract
“Contract Management Cycle,” which should look risks and goals would be specific to the agency
something like this: Analysis, Specifying the Need, or agencies writing the contract, but some great
Identify the Contract Risks and Goals, selecting a starter questions to consider may be the following:

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14 THE EDGE WINTER 2022-2023