The FAR Council published a final rule on March 7, 2022, implementing revisions to the Buy American Act. The final rule strengthens the impact of Federal procurement preferences for products and construction materials domestically manufactured from substantially all domestic content and is effective October 25, 2022.
Lynne Nalley, CPA
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Recent Posts
Topics: DFARS Business Systems, Contractor Purchasing System Review (CPSR)
What is a CPSR Review?
A CPSR Review is a Contractor Purchasing System Review. This review is performed by the Government on a contractor, in order to:
- assess the overall health of the purchasing organization,
- evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of the contractor’s practices in expending Government funds,
- perform an independent review of the contractor’s system to optimize its effectiveness in compliance with Government policy, and
- identify risk to provide the Administrative Contracting Officer (ACO) a basis for approving or disapproving the purchasing system.
Topics: DFARS Business Systems, Contractor Purchasing System Review (CPSR)
Does the Total of All Proposed Subcontract Costs Exceed 70% of the Total Contract Costs?
Is your company submitting a proposal to the government/prime contractor that includes a total of all subcontract costs exceeding 70 percent of the total costs proposed? If so, you must identify “added value” in your proposal so the government/auditor does not classify the indirect cost applied to the total subcontract cost as “excessive pass-through charges.” The government considers indirect costs and profit/fee that a contractor applies to subcontract costs that exceed 70 percent of the contract to be “pass through costs.” This applies to lower tier subcontract costs also. If there is no negligible value added by the contractor, the government or auditor will question the indirect costs and profit/fee applied to the subcontract costs as unallowable excessive pass through under FAR 31.203(i).
Topics: Compliant Accounting Infrastructure, Proposal Cost Volume Development & Pricing, Incurred Cost Proposal Submission (ICP/ICE), DFARS Business Systems, DCAA Audit Support, Contractor Purchasing System Review (CPSR), Government Regulations
Due to the recent Russian invasion in Ukraine, there has been a significant increase in cyber-attacks reported across the world. While the U.S. Government has concerns related to attacks on U.S. companies including banks, power companies, fuel suppliers, they are also concerned with defense contractors. President Biden has issued multiple warnings to companies including defense contractors about looming cyber-attacks.
Topics: DFARS Business Systems, Contractor Purchasing System Review (CPSR), Cybersecurity
What is the Commercial Item Group (CIG)?
So, what is the DCMA CIG? They are the “cadre of experts” established under DCMA as a result of Section 831 of the FY 2013 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The purpose of the CIG is to assist DoD contracting officers in making commercial item determinations. There are several DCMA ACO’s that have warrants specific to making commercial item determinations on contractor assertions or higher-tier contractor determinations of its supplier’s assertions at the request of a buying command. DCMA CIG has price analysts and engineers that perform market research, evaluate the commercial submission, determine whether pricing is fair and reasonable as well as provide negotiation support.
Topics: Proposal Cost Volume Development & Pricing, Commercial Item Determination
This is the third blog in a three-part series on progress payments for Government contractors. In this blog we will discuss the estimate to complete, and the adjustments needed when there is a projected loss on a contract.
Topics: Compliant Accounting Infrastructure, Contracts & Subcontracts Administration, DFARS Business Systems, Government Regulations, Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), Estimating System Compliance
This is the second blog in a three-part series on progress payments. This blog addresses Line 5, Contract Price and Line 11, Total eligible costs on the SF1443 Contractor’s Request for Progress Payment Form.
Topics: Compliant Accounting Infrastructure, Contracts & Subcontracts Administration, DFARS Business Systems, Government Regulations, Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)
This is the first blog on a three-part series on progress payments and discusses progress payments and the applicable rates.
Topics: Compliant Accounting Infrastructure, Contracts & Subcontracts Administration, DFARS Business Systems, Government Regulations, Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)
DCAA has caught up on their incurred cost backlog and is concentrating effort on Truth in Negotiations Audits (i.e., Defective Pricing). The objective of the Truth in Negotiations audit is to determine whether a negotiated contract price was increased by a significant amount because a contractor did not submit or disclose current, accurate or complete cost or pricing data.
Topics: Proposal Cost Volume Development & Pricing, DFARS Business Systems, DCAA Audit Support, Government Regulations, Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)