Air Force Needs Better Processes to Appropriately Justify and Manage Cost-Reimbursable Contracts
Abstract
Our objectives were to determine whether Air Force contracting personnel complied with interim Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) revisions regarding the use of costreimbursable1 contracts. Specifically, we determined whether Air Force contracting personnel implemented the interim rule by documenting: that approval for the cost-reimbursable contract was at least one level above the contracting officer; that the use of cost-reimbursable contracts was justified; how the requirements under the contract could transition to firm-fixed-price in the future; that Government resources were available to monitor the cost-reimbursable contract; and that contractors had an adequate accounting system in place during the entire contract. We also determined whether Air Force personnel were intentionally misclassifying contracts as firm-fixed-price to avoid the increased cost-reimbursable contract documentation requirements. We plan to issue separate reports for each Service, one report to include the Missile Defense Agency and the Defense Microelectronics Activity, as well as a summary report. This is the first report in the planned series of reports and includes cost-reimbursable contracts issued by the Department of the Air Force at the four sites visited. See Appendix A for the scope and methodology and prior coverage related to the objectives.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 21, 2013
- Accession Number
- ADA575358