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History
Since its inception in 1958, DARPA has utilized the existing contracting organizations in the military services and other Government Agencies to award DARPA-funded contracts. These contracting organizations, along with the financial management activities that support them, are referred to as DARPA "Agents". DARPA's use of these agents has been governed by memoranda of agreement.
In FY87, DARPA created its own internal contracting agent called the Contracts Management Office (CMO). CMO was never intended to replace the contracting agents in the military services, but rather to provide DARPA with additional contracting capability and flexibility in select technical areas critical to the DARPA mission. CMO has the authority to award contracts, grants, cooperative agreements, and "other" transactions. At first, CMO concentrated on prototyping projects. Over the years that mission concentration shifted to special support for consortium programs, fast-reaction projects, and awards under the DARPA other transaction authority of 10 USC 2371. The CMO staff deliberately has been kept small (a total of 12 billets), but is highly-trained, highly-graded, and extremely productive, awarding approximately 25% of the total contracting dollars.
CMO has the authority to award contracts, grants, cooperative agreements, and "other transactions."
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