According to the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA), auditors have found, on many occasions, contractors who have included the cost of unamortized value of capital equipment in contract cost presentations. Unfortunately, the Agency isn't any more specific as to what transpires. Perhaps a contractor has bought something specific for its Government contracts and has been depreciating the cost but finds that the asset is no longer needed so it simply charges whatever has not yet been depreciated direct to a Government contract. Ours is a little bit of conjecture but the example seems to fit DCAA's cautionary note. In any event, the Agency is directing its auditors to question the costs - the undepreciated balance of capital equipment.
Not so fast. There could be situations where charging unamortized costs direct to a contract (or contracts) is appropriate. For example, a contracting officer might have approved the accounting practice. There might be specific contractual coverage that allows the practice. The costs could be related to special tooling and test equipment that was duly approved by the Government for allocation to Government contracts.
In the case of special tooling and test equipment, the Government has already approved the purchase and contractors are required to find an allocation methodology that allocates those costs to all benefiting contracts. If a contractor allocates the cost over the anticipated production run but production is curtailed for some reason, it might be totally appropriate to charge the remaining costs to the final contract.
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