New Guidance Allows Limited Role for DCAA Audit of Non-DOD Contracts
Client Alert | 1 min read | 02.04.16
The 2016 National Defense Authorization Act prohibits the Defense Contract Audit Agency from providing "audit support" to any non-DOD agency until the Secretary of Defense certifies that DCAA has reduced its backlog of incurred cost audits to 18 months or less, a restriction that could cause some disruption for contractors when DOD contracts are not a majority of the contractor's government work and when audit support has been provided by DCAA in the past. On January 7, 2016, DCAA issued guidance to its auditors that appears to limit the prohibition on "audit support" to incurred cost audits, leaving DCAA auditors free to provide other accounting services to non-DOD agencies, specifically permitting DCAA to perform incurred cost audits that include both DOD and non-DOD contracts when auditors determine that inclusion of the non-DOD contracts involves "de minimis" incremental effort by DCAA, and offering guidance about how to handle such "mixed" audits when the non-DOD contracts will create more than "de minimis" incremental effort.
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Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.21.25
On November 7, 2025, in Thornton v. National Academy of Sciences, No. 25-cv-2155, 2025 WL 3123732 (D.D.C. Nov. 7, 2025), the District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed a False Claims Act (FCA) retaliation complaint on the basis that the plaintiff’s allegations that he was fired after blowing the whistle on purported illegally discriminatory use of federal funding was not sufficient to support his FCA claim. This case appears to be one of the first filed, and subsequently dismissed, following Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s announcement of the creation of the Civil Rights Fraud Initiative on May 19, 2025, which “strongly encourages” private individuals to file lawsuits under the FCA relating to purportedly discriminatory and illegal use of federal funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in violation of Executive Order 14173, Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity (Jan. 21, 2025). In this case, the court dismissed the FCA retaliation claim and rejected the argument that an organization could violate the FCA merely by “engaging in discriminatory conduct while conducting a federally funded study.” The analysis in Thornton could be a sign of how forthcoming arguments of retaliation based on reporting allegedly fraudulent DEI activity will be analyzed in the future.
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.20.25
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.20.25
Client Alert | 6 min read | 11.19.25
