Defense Contract Audit Agency Audits of Indirect Costs at Major Contractors

摘要

The Federal Acquisition Regulation requires a contractor to submit to the contracting officer a final indirect cost rate proposal reflecting actual cost history for the year. The Defense Contract Audit Agency is required to audit the contractor's incurred cost submission and to issue an advisory report. Federal statutes permit the contracting officer to assess a penalty when the contractor includes expressly unallowable costs or other costs previously determined to be unallowable in the incurred cost submission. Therefore, an important purpose of the audit is to identify and report claimed costs that the auditor believes are unallowable under the Federal Acquisition Regulation, advance agreements, and specific contract clauses or are unallowable subject to penalties. In FY 1996, the Defense Contract Audit Agency spent about 1.5 million hours (about 1,000 staff years) auditing about $66 billion in direct and indirect incurred costs at major contractors. A major contractor is one with $70 million or more in annual reimbursable contract costs.