Warranties In the acquisition of goods and services, especially at the level of Government acquisitions, warranties serve to protect and guarantee the quality of these acquisitions. In these cases, warranties protect providers from expensive lawsuits, while the purchaser is protected from gross defects in the acquisition itself and/or fraud by the goods or services provider. In some cases, a warrantee is not required. This makes an in-depth knowledge of documents such as the Federal Acquisition Requirement (FAR) beneficial for all parties involved.

According to Section 46.703 of the FAR document, for example, certain criteria are in place for determining the necessity and use of a warranty. The contracting officer, for example needs to consider the nature and use of the goods or services acquired, according to factors like complexity, development, state of the art, end use, difficulty in detecting defects, and potential harm to the government in case of defect and fraud.

A very high level for any of these factors would then merit invoking...

An item that has a high level of complexity and would pose harm to the Government in case of defect or fraud, for example, would require the use of a warranty. On the other hand, a low level of complexity and ease of detecting defects may not require the use of the Warranty provision.
Cost is another important consideration. The effectiveness of the Warranty provision is at its highest level when the contractor accepts liability for defects at an acceptable cost, while the government also has a high level ability to enforce and administer the Warranty at such cost. An adequate administrative system needs to be in place to report defects or misrepresentation for the product or service provided. This enables government administrators to effectively report and invoke the Warranty provision. Again, this system is dependent on factors like complexity, location, use, storage, and so on (FAR, p. 869).

When purchasing items or services, some of these acquisitions, as stated above, merit what is…