Redstone Government Consulting Blog | DFARS Business Systems (3)

On June 9, 2023, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued M-23-16, Update to Memorandum M-22-18, providing an extension to the deadline for software developers to submit attestation forms to Federal agencies.

The Department of Defense has failed an audit - five in a row, to be exact. Federal law mandates audits for all federal agencies, and until 2017, the Department of Defense was never able to satisfy this requirement. It is a very tall task – auditing an agency that controls over half of the discretionary spending in the United States. But in 2017, DoD underwent a financial audit for the first time. They did not pass, but that was never expected. There have also been audits each year since, and while the Agency has not yet passed an audit, it has improved each time.

On April 27, 2023, The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) of The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published a draft Secure Software Development Attestation Form. Software producers that sell to the government will be required to complete the self-attestation form to attest that the software they produce was developed in conformity with specified secure development practices.

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) 2023, Section 803 amended the data that contractors are required to supply for commercial products at the subsystem, component and spare-part levels for major weapons system. While a DFARS proposed rule is being drafted, we expect Contracting Officers and DCMA Commercial Item Group (CIG) to begin requiring this information for proposed commercial products in advance of the DFARS proposed rule.

The purpose of a CPSR is to determine if a contractor’s purchasing system and related internal controls comply with applicable laws and regulations, are effective over compliance with applicable laws and regulations, and are adequate and operating effectively. Contractors should evaluate their purchasing system by using the following regulations and DCMA guidance:

DoD Issued a Final Rule amending the Defense Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to require contracting officers to consider Supplier Performance Risk System (SPRS) risk assessments when evaluating a suppliers quote or offer. The final rule is effective March 22, 2023. The Supplier Performance Risk System (SPRS) is the authoritative source to retrieve supplier product and performance information assessments for the DoD acquisition community to use in identifying, assessing, and monitoring unclassified performance.

DoD issued a DFARS Final Rule on Treatment of Incurred Independent Research and Development Costs (DFARS Case 2017-D019). The rule is effective January 31, 2023.

In a saga which conjures up the phrase: “It ain’t over till it’s over” (quotation attributed to the late, great Yogi Berra), the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Case 21-2304) in a decision dated 01-3-2023, reversed an ASBCA Decision (60091, et al), the latter having found Raytheon’s policies for tracking potentially unallowable Lobbying and Organization costs to be reasonable, thus allowable.

In order to fulfill project requirements, there are times necessitating that remote employees travel into the contractor’s site of operations for a meeting, special project, training, performance review, etc. The US Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) states that the time employees spend commuting from home to their normal place of work before the beginning of the workday and from work back home at the end of the workday is not considered compensable time worked and therefore is not time for which employees must be paid. What if the employer wants to compensate remote employees for this travel time? The available guidance doesn’t seem to say an employer can’t pay an employee for this time, and many employers do, however, should they, and what things should an employer consider?

Yes, the door just opened for potential relief from unanticipated inflation on fixed-priced contracts, but what’s beyond the door is still unclear. This year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) includes Section 822, Modification of Contracts to Provide Extraordinary Relief Due to Inflation Impacts, which builds upon DoD’s September 9, 2022, inflation guidance through use of FAR Part 50, Extraordinary Contractual Actions and the Safety Act, requests submitted to your contracting officer to provide an upward adjustment (increase contract value) and this can be done for prime and subcontractors. Note that this NDAA section does not create an obligation for the Government to pay for unanticipated inflation, but it is a “discretionary” expenditure where the Government may pay for the effects of unanticipated inflation. What remains to be seen is exactly how and how much will be provided to your contract(s).