Back in the Saddle Again

DCAA (Defense Contract Audit Agency) is now back in the business of performing audit services for non-DoD agencies.

The Agency announced late last month that it had met the requirement imposed by the Fiscal Year 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of less than 18 months of incurred cost inventory and that the DoD Comptroller has certified DCAA's progress to Congress.

For background on the 2016 NDAA restriction, click here.

So, how did DCAA reduce its incurred cost backlog so quickly - in just one year? Primarily through establishing a risk-based approach to determining which contract fiscal year submissions required an audit and which could be administratively closed without undue risk to the Government.

DCAA has informed its reimbursable customers that audit services can resume on October 1, 2016 and auditors are being instructed to likewise inform their respective reimbursable customers.

Although some agencies have hired private firms for filling their contract audit needs (or are working toward that end), most agencies have not and will probably migrate back to DCAA. It will be interesting to see whether DCAA can now satisfy those customers and keep them as customers.