Redstone Government Consulting Blog (35)

Problems with timesheet corrections or payroll variances? Follow the road to skillfully detour around these frequent People Module issues.

Here are the Details

DoD issued DFARs Final Rule D2019-D029 – Treatment of Commingled Items Under $10K, effective October 1, 2020, to implement several sections of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017 that addresses treatment of commingled items purchased by contractors and services provided by nontraditional defense contractors as commercial items. This blog only addresses the DFARS change relative to the treatment of commingled items purchased by a contractor. The final rule is applicable to all solicitations and contracts, including solicitations and contracts using FAR Part 12 procedures for the acquisition of commercial items and solicitations and contracts valued at or below the simplified acquisition threshold.

Our latest video and article provide essential tips and strategies for government contractors, both small and large, to ensure success throughout the government contracting process.

Here are the Details

DoD issued a DFARs Final Rule D2019-D029 – Services Provided by Nontraditional Defense Contractors, effective October 1, 2020, to implement several sections of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017 that addresses treatment of commingled items purchased by contractors and services provided by nontraditional defense contractors as commercial items. This blog only addresses the DFARS change related to services provided by nontraditional defense contractors as commercial items.

Defense Pricing Memo – September 30, 2020

Acting Principal Director, Defense Pricing and Contracting, Mr. Kim Harrington issued a memo on September 30, 2020 to announce that the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) has a new Defective Pricing Pilot Team to provide support to Procuring Contracting Officers (PCOs) to resolve and disposition Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) Truth in Negotiations Act (TINA) compliance audits. DCAA’s new favorite audit it appears. Reading a little into the memo (ok – not too much reading as the memo uses the word – backlog) DCAA has apparently created a new backlog for DoD of what they affectionately call TiN audits. Not a real surprise as DCAA created a TiN team a few years back. DCAA historically had an extensive workload development process to audit all large fixed priced contracts and sample smaller ones that created more audits than resources could accommodate. As we have reported before, now that DCAA is looking for work, the rush appears to be on for DCAA auditors to get back into more defective pricing audits.

As Halloween 2020 is upon us, it is time to report on some of the more popular costumes or ideas for costumes applicable to organizations and/or individuals who are in politics, sports, acting, the media (i.e. newscasters) and federal agencies. Although our prior years’ Halloween blogs have focused on a few government agencies, current events have caused us to focus our research (thus this blog) primarily on the wonderful and friendly world of politics and political elections in the United States.

Let us Set the Stage

On June 11, 2020, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) put out a Notice (2020-46) that allowed employees to donate unused leave to charitable groups supporting the COVID-19 National Emergency. Under the leave-based donation program, employees can elect to forgo vacation, sick, or personal leave in exchange for cash payments that the employer makes to charitable organizations. The notice provides that employee’s donation of leave will not be taxable income to the employee, however the employer will still treat the cost of the leave granted to the employee as either ordinary and necessary business expense or a charitable contribution. This applies to donations made before the end of the 2020 calendar year.

On September 22, 2020, President Trump signed an Executive Order (EO) seeking to end what is characterized in the Order as "training sessions based on race and sex stereotyping and scapegoating" in the federal workforce, the Uniformed Services, and among federal contractors. The EO provides that it will be the policy of the United States "not to promote race or sex stereotyping or scapegoating" in the federal workforce and the Uniformed Services, and not to let grant funds to be used for these purposes.