Redstone Government Consulting Blog | Contractor Purchasing System Review (CPSR) (5)

Where Did This Come From?

National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2019, required the implementation of a new Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) rule barring federal contractors from using telecommunications products or services or video surveillance equipment from certain foreign companies – The People’s Republic of China. As a result, a new contract clause came into place – FAR 52.204-25, Prohibition on Contracting for Certain Telecommunications and Video Surveillance Services or Equipment – effective August 13, 2020.

If your business pipeline is growing and you are issuing more subcontracts of higher values, Contractors should be aware that your organization has a duty under 48 CFR §22.805 to the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP).

Our Commercial Item Expert, Lynne Nalley, discusses and clarifies common questions and issues associated with commercial items and Commercial Item Determinations (CID).

While the government promotes full and open competition, and competition is the preferred method of subcontracting, there are situations where the contractor uses a “sole source” or a “single source” when awarding a subcontract/Purchase Order (PO). There is a difference between a sole source and a single source award.

Per DFARS 252.204-7012, Contractors were to implement NIST SP 800-171 by 12/31/2017 “Safeguarding Cover Defense Information and Incident Reporting”. However, Contractors self-certification has not gone as well as the Department of Defense (DoD) had hoped.  They have even included it as part of 2019 Contractor Purchasing System Reviews (CPSR) for the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) to evaluate Contractors monitoring of subcontractor’s self-certification.  In the meantime, DoD has shifted gears and is developing the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) to help strengthen the DoD supply chain's cybersecurity at all levels of the supply chain, from the prime Contractor on down to the lowest subcontractor. 

As we noted in our last blog, DCMA has issued another updated CPSR Guidebook, dated May 29, 2018.  DCMA issued two updates in 2017 and have already issued 2 updates in 2018.  This leads us to question: Will there be more? And our intuition leads us to answer: More than likely! 

A new DCMA CPSR Guidebook has been released effective May 29, 2018 and can be found here:  http://www.dcma.mil/Portals/31/Documents/CPSR/CPSR_Guidebook_052918.pdf The Redstone team will be conducting a more comprehensive review of the guidebook, but we want to share our initial thoughts with readers.

Is your purchasing system ready for a DCMA Contractor Purchasing System Review?  Time to dust off those policies and procedures, and make sure your employees are trained on FAR and DFARS requirements.

DCMA has been hard at work reviewing contractor purchasing systems, making several updates in 2016 to the CPSR Guidebook, the most recent being January 18, 2016.  In addition, in October 2016, the Director of DCMA issued a Class Deviation from FAR 44.302(a), increasing the CPSR threshold from $25 million to $50 million.  Questions remain on how this will impact contractors whose contracts include FAR 44.3 and who are on DCMA’s review schedule.  The threshold can be lowered if the ACO determines a contractor’s risk level warrants a review.  We have already seen the lower threshold enforced in the early part of 2017 for a couple of our clients.

“Help! We received a letter from our ACO informing us that they will be conducting a Contractor Purchasing System Review (CPSR) three months from now – can you help us?” This is a scenario we hear all too frequently these days. As promised, DCMA has ramped-up their efforts to ensure contractors purchasing systems are being reviewed and assessed for adequacy.

In March 2013, we blogged about “a new Sheriff in town”. That blog commented on DFARS 252.244-7001 Contractor Purchasing System Administration which sets forth 24 criteria to be used in the determination of an adequate contractor purchasing system. It also reflected on DCMA-INST 109 Contractor Purchasing System Reviews issued November 2012 which has since been revised in January 2014. At the time it was unclear as to just what DCMA would be including in its reviews.  Specifically what criteria would it use when evaluating a contractor’s purchasing system. Late last year we began seeing a bad trend from DCMA reviewers.