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Technical Period of Performance


jcb2k

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Hi All,

I've recently began working with Navy and AF contracts, and I've noticed that both agencies have a "Technical Period of Performance" (TPOP) end date, and then an end date (usually 1-3 months additional) for working on the final report. I have been unable to find a clear definition of TPOP. The issue is that, in R&D contracts, sometimes the preparation of the final report requires work to be done that is equivalent to the work being done during the TPOP. In fact, sometimes it is exactly the same (e.g., data analysis). There seems to be a lot of gray area in this respect. My questions are:

1. Is TPOP legally defined somewhere?

2. Could DCAA disallow certain costs based on whether or not the charges occurred during the TPOP, or during the time between the end of the TPOP and the end of the overall contract POP?

Thanks in advance for your opinions! And please let me know if I can clarify any of the above information.

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Hello jcb2k,

Contracting personnel sometimes get creative in their descriptions, get a job somewhere else, and keep spreading their creativity around; this could be either good or bad, but tends to move away from standard language and may create confusion.

 

It appears to me that the R&D situation you mention is in FAR 35.011(a) “R&D contracts shall specify the technical data to be delivered under the contract, since the data clauses required by Part 27 do not require the delivery of any such data.”

 

My recommendation is that you contact the contracting officer and ask for written clarification on the charges you have doubt on before you incur them.  You can always attempt to negotiate if there is a disagreement within the scope of the contract.  Like an old CO used to say: “we are one mod away from the perfect contract…"

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jcb - thoughts....

As you may have seen in your detailed research TPOP is a term found with regard to the SBA's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. As such DoD as a Department has the program under their wing too.

https://www.sbir.gov/

http://www.acq.osd.mil/osbp/sbir/

Noting this you may be asking questions related to a SBIR contract and the above links may help in your research.   In the end the suggestion to contact the CO is the best approach.

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jcb, in regard to your second question, we need to recognize that DCAA does not disallow costs.  DCAA questions costs and the contracting officer decides if they are allowable or unallowable.  Despite this, many contracting officers feel they cannot disagree with DCAA and must disallow costs questioned by DCAA.  As to whether DCAA could question costs incurred between the end of the TPOP and the end of the contract POP, there is no end to the costs DCAA can question.  I have seen DCAA question subcontractor costs where the work was done near the end of the contract period of performance so that the subcontractor did not bill the prime until after the prime POP had ended.  DCAA questioned these costs as being outside the prime POP.  This shows that DCAA can and will question a variety of costs for a variety of reasons.  However, the question is if DCAA is correct and that is for the contracting officer to decide.

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