nitram_PM

We are a military contractor supplying r&D services that lead to communications products such as radios.

I am looking for an example of a completed typical "Basis of Estimate" that the Government likes. We have a BOE form that similar to the one shown at http://www.propricer.com/estimating/ If we have 100 WBS elements then, we submit 100 pages. Many of those pages are just a few lines of information. If I were an auditor, I would find these cumbersome. I could easily consolidate the information and list five or so on a page. I would like to give the reviewer what they want to see to make it easiest on them. Also, at what level do you want to see. For instance, we usually always have the last Element as 1.x Management. Under 1.x we usually have 1.x.1 Program management, 1.x.2 Business management, 1.x.3 Configuration management, 1.x.4 Documentation, and 1.x.5 Risk Management. Does the reviewer want to see one BOE for "1.x management" which includes the lower levels or do they want to see a separate document for each lower element. Thank you

This forum is great. You all are extremely helpful and quick. For anybody interested, here is a court case agreeing 100% with the two of them. http://www.ll.georgetown.edu/federal/judic...ns/97-1299.html

Vern, Thank you so much. One more question then; What if during the rate recalculation our rates actually were lower. Would we have to pay the Government back?

This is a cpff contract. Thirty days before the end of last year we did not know that there was a problem. In fact, I got an email from our finance department in November 2009 stating that the rates would remain flat and would not substantially change from the approved rates. Then the first week of January 2010 (I am assuming that Finance worked through Christmas), the company submitted new rates to DCAA which has a rate adjustment for last year. These rates have not been approved yet. (that is a whole other problem). Using the old rates (which are the only approved rates that we have) the contract still has $100K left on it. If you add up all the costs throughout 2009 and apply new rates then we are about $300K over. So, I guess that theoretically I still have $100K left on the contract using the only approved rates that we have. But since the new rates were submitted and the company believes they will be accepted, they had me stop working on the program. We have not submitted a final invoice yet. Example: Total Contract Limit: $5M. (assume no fee for simpicity) Total Costs on the contract from January 1 to December 31, 2009 using old approved rates was $4.9M. Remaining: $100K at the end of December 31 using old approved rates. January 3, new rates for 2009 submitted to DCAA 8% higher (comglomerate rate combining G&A, Overhead, etc. for simplicity) Amount costs increased due to rate adjustment: $4.9M x 8% = $392K Total Costs $4.9M + $392K = $5.292M Amount over the $5M limit: $292K Suppose this contract ended in September 2009 and I went right to the limit because in good faith the company did not know that there would be a rate increase. Now three months after the engineering is done and the final reports are submitted we recalculate our rates for the previous year. We then find out that we were over; wouldn't we be entitled to the money that we were over? I could even imagine that the rate adjustment could come years later. Certainly, there may be no money left in the specific program at that point. Where would the money come from?

We were at the last week of a cost plus fixed fee contract, when our finance department resubmitted the new overhead/G&A rates to the Government/DCAA. I am the Program Manger and was told in November that the rates would not change much. As it turns out, there was a big change. As we approached the end of the contract, with the old rates I had $100K left. The new rate adjustment made the total costs $400K over what we had been invoicing throughout the year. Therefore, with the new rates, I am now over the contract amount by about $300K. So, of course, my program was shut down by our finance department. So, I have several questions. What happens now? I am assuming that we will just send an invoice up to the contract amount ($100K) for the adjustment as no work was performed. How and when does the Government get their final invoice for the remainder of $300K? Does this come out of my Contracting Officers program funds. What I am most concerned about is getting my CO/COTR very upset. Does this come out of his budget or does his department have a pool for this? How bad will this look on him/me? Does he have to start trying to find more money?