DoD Rolls Out Centralized Depository of Contractor Business Information

The Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) released a new application for use by the Department of Defense procurement community. They call it the Contract Business Analysis Repository (CBAR) and is mandatory for all contracts greater than $25 million.

Currently, the CBAR provides the following information

• Indirect and direct cost information (forward pricing rates)
• Status of Contractor Business Systems (e.g. accounting, estimating, purchasing, etc)
• Information about costs and financial condition of the parent entity of major corporations.
• Status of compliance with Cost Accounting Standards (including CAS Disclosure Statement)

CBAR will also capture PCO (Procuring Contracting Officer) business clearance data prepared to support the negotiation and award of a contract pricing action. The purpose of the business clearance information, according to the Government, is to enable contracting officers to share negotiating experiences with other negotiators. Sharing experiences should result in better preparation for negotiating subsequent contracts and realizing a better deal for the Government.

Among the data collected in CBAR's business clearance module is a comparison of proposed and negotiated costs as well as several comment fields to describe experiences. Since this is a new requirement tacked on to the already overworked contracting officer corps, it seems unlikely if contracting officers take the time to write up any narrative description of their negotiation experience. Most likely, data entry will be limited to only the most basic of information.

The CBAR is not public information but we recommend that contractors periodically consult with their contracting officers to review the information pertaining the them. Data in these kinds of databases tend to get stale and it is important to ensure that the information is accurate.