1. Home
  2. |Insights
  3. |Allowability of IR&D Costs: Dis-inflation Run Amok

Allowability of IR&D Costs: Dis-inflation Run Amok

Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 03.09.11

DOD has issued a proposed amendment to DFARS 231.205-18 (Mar. 2, 2011) that would condition the allowability of independent research and development costs on the reporting of unspecified information about individual projects at least annually and again on completion of projects, using DOD on-line reporting forms. The proposed rule would apply to all contractors with annual IR&D costs in excess of $50,000, an amount that is less than 1% of the threshold in effect in 1990 for reporting IR&D projects under the prior regulatory regime, a mandatory reporting requirement that was completely abolished in 1996.

Insights

Client Alert | 4 min read | 10.30.26

Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right: GAO Sustains Protest Where Agency Tried to Fix PIA Violation with a Second PIA Violation

Recent sustain decisions by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) in Fluor Federal Solutions, LLC and Reliance Test & Technology send a clear message: when an agency tries to fix a Procurement Integrity Act (PIA) violation by committing a second one, the cure can be just as fatal as the disease. The cases involved the U.S. Air Force’s $1.8 billion procurement for O&M services at Elgin Air Force Base. During discussions, the Air Force inadvertently released a pricing overview slide with all offerors’ bottom-line evaluated costs to Reliance Test & Technology, which immediately notified the agency of the error. In response, the Air Force decided to level the playing field by providing the same information to all the other offerors in the procurement, stating, “[o]fferors may consider this disclosure in their [final proposal revision].”...