My company was awarded a competitive contract under our Federal Supply Schedule from GSA. The predominance of the work is to provide services under our established T&M Rates, also line items were established for Travel/ODCs and material, both are considered reimbursable with no fee. The contract includes a term that our company is required to follow the Joint Travel Regulations, our company took no exception to the terms during the solicitation.
Recently, we have incurred business meals against task orders and the government questions their allowability to the contract, stating the cost would be an indirect expense and should have been considered in our T&M rates (which of course our FSS does not assume). And later, stated that our contract does not deal with business meals as we don't have a cost line item to recoup such costs. In order to defend the cost I immediately went to evaluate FAR 31 (specifically the sections dealing with business meals). Since we are able to meet the requirements provided in FAR 31 (meaning costs can be allocable, are accounted for, do not represent an entertainment cost, have a specific purpose, 100% related to the direct efforts of the contract, and are not unallowable per FAR 31.2), I assumed we would just negotiate with the customer what are a reasonable expense for the business meals, and that would be it.
However, I realized that there are no part 31 clauses are in our FSS, and no other terms exist in our BPA associated with this work. Is it a leap of faith to assume FAR 31 would be considered when discussing business meals as the contract does not address business meals, nor does the JTRs?
Advice is appreciated.