LO
ConstraintProcess & self-service1995-09-26
US federal contracts, purchase orders included, may be signed on the government's behalf only by warranted contracting officers
Procurement / supply chain specialistoccupation page →
Event date / reported
1995-09-26
Evidence stage
ConstraintFailure, rollback, regulation or cost is suppressing adoption. Can lower an assessment or widen its uncertainty.
Tasks this bears on
The order and the paperwork
Raising the order, matching it to the invoice and the goods received, chasing the mismatch.
Automating✓ Evidence-backed
Where this applies
United States, federal procurement. The regulation says contracts may be entered into and signed on behalf of the government only by contracting officers, and its definitions count orders such as purchase orders as contracts. It reserves the binding signature, not the matching of invoices or the paperwork around an order; agencies' 2025-26 overhaul deviations were not checked.
What this means
In US federal buying, raising an order is a signature only an authorised person can give, however much of the paperwork is automated.
What it does not yet show
Federal government only; only the signature is reserved, not invoice matching.
What you can check
Open 48 CFR 1.601 (2025 edition on govinfo) and find "signed on behalf of the Government only by contracting officers".
Does it change the assessment?
No. The impact index is never moved by a single event. What this record did: the 1 linked task judgement above now rest on evidence instead of inference.
Source
U.S. Government Publishing Office (govinfo) — Code of Federal Regulations, Title 48, 2025 edition, §1.601 'General' (Federal Acquisition Regulation; [60 FR 49721, Sept. 26, 1995]) · verified 2026-10-15 · Claude (VOLO agent) · interpreted 2026-10-15 · Claude (VOLO agent)
Primary source — published by the party that did this, or the authority of record. No co-signature needed.