Order of Precedence - Contract Modifications

The Department of Defense is proposing to amend its FAR supplement (the DFARS) to establish an order for application of contract modifications to resolve any potential conflicts that may arise from multiple modifications with the same effective date. Although it does not happen frequently, there are enough cases involving contract modifications with conflicting contract provisions that have the same effective date, to make such a regulation desirable.

Currently there are no rules to describe in what order to apply modifications to determine the actual content of a resulting modified contract. In order to determine the sequence of modifications to a contract or order, a method for determining the order or application for modifications will resolve any conflict arising from multiple modifications with the same effective date.

Under the new regulations, modifications will be applied in the following order:

1. Modifications will be applied in order of the effective date on the modification.
2. In the event of two or more modifications with the same effective date, modifications will be applied in signature date order.
3. In the event or two or more modifications with the same effective date and the same signature date, procuring contracting office modifications (contract modifications beginning with the letter "P") will be applied in numeric order, followed by contract administration office modifications (contract modifications beginning the the letter "A") in numeric order.