Contract Management Community Expert's Corner

As reported via UPI yesterday, London-based military giant EADS unveiled that it had finally selected a partner to create a refueling tanker aircraft for the U.S. Air Force. The deal, worth $45 billion dollars, would produce 179 planes. Yet, European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. (EADS) CEO Louis Gallois told the pink-paged Financial Times that he was keeping mum on the name of the key supplie...

Just posted over in the Announcements Forum: Nancy Deskins, Director for Supplier Diversity at Lockheed Martin, will be giving a webinar for small businesses interested in doing business with Lockheed Martin and other large integrators. This free webinar will be held on Thursday, August 27, 2009, from 2-3pm EDT -- see the event announcement for more information and to reserve your spot....

I'm Dr. Mary Ann Wangemann and I will be hosting the Contract Management Community. My background includes over 24 years in the federal space in all aspects of the procurement and delivery cycle in deals ranging in size from $100K-$13B. I have been an editor for a Contract Excellence newsletter and the author of 13 textbooks in federal, state and local, and subcontract management. In addition, I...

A contract can either be exempt from CAS coverage or CAS coverage applies and a disclosure statement must be submitted.  Reasons that the government may exempt a contract or subcontract from CAS coverage include size of the business unit; dollar amount of contract award; small business concern; acquisition of commercial items; method of pricing or foreign contractor or performance.   A ...

The government must first determine if the contract is covered by the Cost Accounting Standards (CAS) that are issued by the Cost Accounting Standards Board (CASB).  The CASB is made up of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) Administrator; a Department of Defense (DOD) representative; a General Services Administration (GSA) representative; two private sector representatives: one ...

The government can only require an offeror to submit cost information other than cost or pricing data when the government expects that the offeror will be exempted from submitting certified cost or pricing data but when the government needs cost information to determine price reasonableness or cost realism.  For example, if the government is only expecting a single offer or if it is expectin...

If the offeror submits false data that it certifies as true and accurate, it has committed defective pricing. Defective pricing exists when any price, including profit or fee, for any purchase action covered by a Certificate of Current Cost or Pricing data is increased by any significant amount because the data were not accurate, complete or current.  In these situations, the government is e...

When the contractor submits certified cost and pricing data to the government it must provide:   ·         Solicitation, contract and/or mod number ·         Name and address of offeror ·         Point of contact information ·       &n...

They must provide a cover sheet outlining basic information, for example: ·         Solicitation, contract and/or mod number ·         Name and address of offeror ·         Point of contact information ·         Name of contract admi...

The government makes the distinction between cost or pricing data and information other than cost or pricing data to comply with the Truth in Negotiations Act (TINA).  Unless there is an exception, TINA requires a contracting officer to obtain cost or pricing data before accomplishing any of the following actions when the price is expected to exceed the applicable cost or pricing threshold: ...