DCMA May Have Reimbursed Contractors $219 Million Without Any Support for Amounts Claimed

The DoD's Office of Inspector General (DoD-OIG) released a report this week that evaluated how Government contracting officers resolve audit reports issued by the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) when the Agency "Disclaims" an audit opinion. For non-auditors reading this post, a disclaimer of opinion is issued when the audit firm or audit agency is unable to perform all procedures necessary to obtain sufficient appropriate evidence to form a conclusion on whatever is being audited. In the context of incurred cost audits, this usually means that the contractor could not or would not provide the necessary supporting documentation for amounts claimed.

This OIG report (dated November 26, 2019 but not publicly released until December 2, 2019) concluded that contracting officers (namely the Defense Contract Management Agency or DCMA) may have reimbursed $219 million to DoD contractors that were not allowable costs on Government contracts.

DCAA questioned $219 million based on the contractor's failure to provide supporting documentation for claimed costs as FAR 31.201-2, Determining Allowability, requires. The DCMA contracting officer gave the money back for the following reasons:

• The required time periods for the contractor to retain any of the records had lapsed
• The amounts questioned in the audit report were identical to those disputed before the ASBCA (Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals) which rendered the costs allowable.
• No action was required because DCAA had disclaimed an audit opinion.

The OIG reported that none of these reasons adequately justified the contracting officers' decision not to sustain DCAA questioned costs. First of all, regardless of the minimum record retention time periods specified in the FAR (Federal Acquisition Regulations), the contractor had an obligation to support its costs claimed on Government contracts. Second, contracting officers must take appropriate action in response to DCAA question costs, regardless of the type of audit opinion rendered.FAR 42.705 prohibits the contracting officer from resolving (or otherwise allowing) any questioned cost without obtaining adequate documentation on the costs.

Concerning the ASBCA precedent, the OIG stated that although the contracting officer stated the circumstances were identical, the contracting officer failed to include any evidence to demonstrate that the outcome of the ASBCA cases would apply to the amounts questioned by DCAA. Therefore, the contracting officer failed to adequately justify why he did not sustain the questioned costs.

As a result of this review, DCMA agreed to revisit the contracting officers' decisions to determine the allowablility of questioned costs and will take reasonable steps to recoup any unallowable costs identified during its review. In addition, DCMA will assess whether action should be take to hold the contracting officers accountable for non sustaining any DCAA questioned costs determined to be unallowable.