A Contracting Officer is a person who can bind the United States

Federal government of the United States

The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...

 government

Government

Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...

 to a contract that is greater than the Micro-Purchase threshold. This is limited to the scope of authority delegated to the Contracting Officer by the head of the agency.

In the Department of Defense the acronym KO is used, instead of CO, not to be confused with Commanding Officer

Commanding officer

The commanding officer is the officer in command of a military unit. Typically, the commanding officer has ultimate authority over the unit, and is usually given wide latitude to run the unit as he sees fit, within the bounds of military law...

. The KO enters into, administers, or terminates contracts and makes related determinations and findings. The CO is a federal employee who is issued a Certificate of Appointment, Standard Form 1402.

External links

• Contracting with the federal government (book)
• Federal Crop Insurance Board v. Merrill, 332 U. S. 380 (1947) - Federal Crop Insurance Board v. Merrill