Overview
This section prescribes the specific solicitation provisions and contract clauses that Contracting Officers must use to manage cost and pricing data, ensure the integrity of unit prices, and prevent excessive pass-through charges. It also provides a mandatory framework (Table 15-2) for how offerors must format and submit certified cost or pricing data to ensure it is accurate, complete, and current.
Key Rules
- Defective Pricing Protections: The government must include clauses (52.215-10/11) that allow for a contract price reduction if it is later discovered that a contractor or subcontractor submitted defective certified cost or pricing data.
- Subcontractor Flow-down: Contractors are required to obtain certified cost or pricing data from subcontractors when the subcontract exceeds the threshold and no exception applies, with specific clauses (52.215-12/13) facilitating this requirement.
- Integrity of Unit Prices: Except for commercial items or small purchases, clause 52.215-14 requires that unit prices accurately reflect the distribution of costs and forbids the artificial "loading" of prices.
- Pass-Through Limitations: Clauses 52.215-22 and 52.215-23 are required to identify and limit "excessive pass-through charges" where a contractor adds no significant value to work performed by a subcontractor.
- Table 15-2 Submission Standards: When certified cost or pricing data is required, offerors must provide a detailed cost-element breakdown (labor, materials, indirects), an index of all data submitted, and a signed statement granting the government audit rights.
- Data Exceptions: Provisions 52.215-20 and 52.215-21 provide the mechanism for offerors to request exceptions from submitting certified data (e.g., based on adequate price competition or commerciality).
Practical Implications
- Contractors must maintain rigorous estimating and accounting systems, as the submission of a proposal under these rules grants the government explicit rights to audit records before and after the award.
- Failure to follow the specific formatting and indexing requirements of Table 15-2 can result in a proposal being rejected as non-compliant or causing significant delays in the negotiation process.