Tuesday, December 1, 2015

DCAA's Preaward Survey of Prospective Contractor Accounting System Checklist

DCAA (Defense Contract Audit Agency) publishes a number of checklists that can be used by contractors and prospective contractors to ensure compliance with procurement rules and regulations. We've highlighted and linked to a number of these over the years; forward pricing proposal adequacy, forward pricing rate proposal adequacy, and incurred costs proposal adequacy are a few that come to mind.

DCAA has published another checklist for determining the adequacy of a prospective contractors account system. You can download it by clicking here. DCAA recommends that prospective contractors (and subcontractors) complete this checklist and provide it to their contracting officers as soon as possible. The contracting officer may use the information in deciding whether to request a DCAA audit of the accounting system.

This checklist, for the most part, mirrors the Standard Form 1408 so familiarity with that form may make the DCAA checklist seem redundant. However, the checklist includes some other elements that may assist the contracting officer in determining whether an audit is needed, such as information on prior accounting system audits (whether by DCAA or someone else), CAS (Cost Accounting Standards) coverage, and an overall assessment as to whether the accounting system is ready for an audit.

Some prospective contractors find it useful to have an independent party perform a "mock audit" of the accounting system to identify any weaknesses or deficiencies that need correcting before the Government comes in and performs its own audit. If you're in that situation, give us a call - we can help.


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