realquiet

As a Prime, if the Prime is proposing on NASA contracts and there are other Primes bidding on the same contract; is Certified Cost or Pricing Data required, or does the exception for competition apply? If the Prime is not required to submit certified cost data, are the subcontractors on that contract/proposal then exempt from providing that data?

Hello, When completing a Cost Analysis of a supplier's proposal (as the Prime), and the supplier maintains their rates and factors as proprietary and they have a current/active FPRA; would you recommend still requesting field pricing assistance from DCMA? FFP. This is non-commercial. Over TINA. Per FAR, needs a Cost Analysis, there are no existing exceptions. Can the Cost Analyst proceed under the assumption that the rates and factors are reasonable? Or, is it still best practice to request field pricing assistance, despite the long lead time?

Thank you. So, for our local DCMA office to say "Is xyz supplier your subcontractor? If so, DCMA does not conduct business with Subcontractors. Subcontractors are the sole responsibility of the Prime." That's not necessarily true. If the Primes subcontractor is in excess of $2million and the Prime has been denied access to a subcontractors records, and the CO says it's in the Gov's best interest; field pricing support is provided to a Primes subcontractor. I understand we, as the Prime, are still responsible to determine a fair/reasonable price, etc. But, for DCMA to flat out say "DCMA does not conduct business with Subcontractors"; that just seems incorrect. Thanks!

I guess I want to know whether it is still one of the responsibilities of DCMA to provide assist audit support for a Prime, when their subs exceed the $2 million threshold. Non commercial items. Our ACO flat out told us that "Subcontractors are the sole responsibility of the Prime". It used to be that DCMA would provide assist audit support for subcontractors. I am wondering if that changed.

Hello! It has been a long time since I have requested an assist audit through DCMA. I requested one today and this was the response that DCMA relayed to me "Is xyz supplier your subcontractor? If so, DCMA does not conduct business with Subcontractors. Subcontractors are the sole responsibility of the Prime." It was always my understanding that when a Prime was denied audit rights/access to a suppliers rates and factors, that the Prime would submit an assist audit request through their local DCMA office for field pricing/audit support, isn't that the case? Did something change recently? Do prime's no longer have the support from DCMA or DCAA for assist audit support? What is a primes recourse in a situation where a sub refuses to provide the necessary data to perform a cost and price analysis? Was there a DCMA bulletin released stating that they no longer provide assist audit support for Primes when needed? Thanks!

I am reviweing a price proposal where the supplier added about 35% to their unit prices to account for risk, associated with their suppliers. Is this allowable? They will not quantify the risk. Only describe that they have certain risk from their lower tiered suppliers. In my opinion, we challenge their proposal. However, I am being told to find a way to justify it. What is the proper thing to do? I thought according to FAR 31.205-7, this type of risk is unallowable. Thoughts on how I can complete my PAR? We have PO history. Thanks, Realquiet

Hi General_Correspondence, Thank you very much for your input; I've been a cost/price analyst for about 15 years, and, believe it or not, I've never heard of, or, used CALC.gsa. Neither had my colleagues (with many years experience). We are very excited about the prospect of this tool; and, we recognize that it cannot be used as THE sole data point; however, it will be very useful in conjunction with the other tools we employ; the more tools the merrier. In fact, we are well aware of the fact that GSA cannot be used as the SOLE basis of determining a fair and reasonable price, Shay Assad has said as much on several occasions. Thanks again. This is what I was after. I wish there was something like this that wasn't based on GSA contracts. It'd be nice to have averages of indirect rates based on NAICS/size of company/location/etc. Something defendable and useful to use when determining the reasonableness of proposed wrap rates. Thanks, GC

general_correspondence, Does the data from this website hold up to a DCAA/DCMA audit review of a Cost/Price Analysis Report? Or, is it data that they'll throughout as unreliable? Do the rates include fee?

I am a cost analyst. My company gets lots of proposals that include fully burdened rates. We have no visibility into their OH, G&A, etc. Just their fully burdened rates (never even a base rate). We do have labor categories so we are able to go to websites like salary.com, bls, etc. to find comparable base rates. My question is, what do you use to account for the indirect rates when you are checking the reasonableness of a proposed rate? Do you use Global Insight Burdened Wage Calculator? Do you have another way to account for it? This is always the trickiest part of determining the reasonableness of proposed labor. I understand it would be an estimate/ball park way of doing it. Even if it is a tool that uses industry averages for indirect rates. Just need a way/tool that is defensable. Proposed rate for an electrical engineer (including all indirects): $162 Base rate (from salary.com) for an electrical engineer: $54 What tools would you use to estimate/build up the rate from salary.com? Prefereably something that has been looked at/approved by DCMA/DCAA. Any help would be greatly appreciated.