Just before the holidays, tthe Department of Defense (“DoD”) quietly withdrew its ill-received proposed rule on the evaluation of price reasonableness in commercial items acquisitions.
Issued on August 3, 2015, the Proposed Rule purported to provide guidance for evaluating the reasonableness of prices using data other than certified cost or pricing data. As we previously reported, it fell short of this goal and, instead, increased confusion in the determination of price reasonableness for commercial goods that have been “offered for sale” but not sold. It also adopted open-ended data provisions that arguably permit the agency to request almost unlimited information to substantiate the reasonableness of prices.
The Proposed Rule elicited strong, negative comments from the defense industry and the American Bar Association’s Section of Public Contract Law. Many accused DoD of attempting to eliminate the commercial acquisition of items without prior commercial sales. In addition, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee issued a letter urging Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter to rethink the proposed rule as inconsistent with the Secretary’s efforts to court commercial contractors.
Keep reading this article at: http://www.insidegovernmentcontracts.com/2015/12/dod-retreats-on-evaluation-of-price-reasonableness/
