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CAS Applicability


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I have just taken over contract management of a contract that is fixed unit price/IDIQ, under the standard set of government terms and conditions - which includes CAS. Originally, the contract was awarded under adequate price competition, with no submittal of current cost or pricing, so it would seem that it would be CAS exempt pursuant to 48 CFR 9903.201-2(B). However, since the subsequent modifications and follow-on options are now sole source, does this make it now CAS applicable? It is for IT services and, arguably, it probably should have originally be awarded as a commercial items contract. The current value is close to $200M. Comments/opinions appreciated!

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CAS coverage status is determined at the time of award. Modifications to a contract do not change the coverage status. If the original contract was FFP and awarded pursuant to adequate price competition without submission of (certified) cost or pricing data, then that contract was eligible for a CAS exemption. However, the parties may have (mistakenly) agreed to subject the contract to CAS because the CAS clauses are not self-deleting. (I.e., if they are not deleted then they are applicable.) If you believe that the parties did not intend the contract to be CAS-covered and it was eligible for a CAS exemption, I would suggest you mod the contract to eliminate the CAS clause.

Hope this helps.

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Guest Infoseeker

Great question.

Mod the contract to get rid of that clause -- Wow, that makes so much sense. I did not know you could do that. Would that be a uni-laterial or a bi-lateral mod?

Related to that, what if the contract should have been CAS covered, but the clause was not in the contract? Can you mod to include the CAS clause? Would that be unilateral or bilateral?

As I typed the second bullet, I believe I thought that CAS clauses were subject to the Christian Doctrine and thus, a contract that was supposed to be CAS covered but lacked the clauses, was still CAS covered. Am I mixing up some things here?

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Infoseeker,

I don't believe the matter has ever been litigated, so we don't know whether or not a Court would conclude that CAS clauses are subject to the Christian Doctrine. Whether the mod would be unilater or bilateral is probably fact/circumstance dependent. Speaking for the contractor, we would be very happy to have the clause removed from the contract if we agreed it did not belong there. No consideration required.

Hope this helps.

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