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On March 22, 2023, the Department of Defense (DoD) issued a proposed rule that would amend the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to require certain contractors to provide export authorizations to the Defense Authorization Management Agency (DCMA).

DCMA performs quality assurance reviews for manufacturing operations to ensure contractors have the appropriate systems in place to meet quality and functionality standards along with contractual requirements regarding testing and validation.  In some cases, DCMA will engage a foreign auditor to perform the quality assurance review.  However, to do so DCMA needs insight into applicable export authorizations to see if engaging the foreign auditor is permissible.      

The proposed rule would require contractors to provide export authorizations to DCMA when the contract requires (i) government quality assurance surveillance oversight and (ii) performance in or delivery to a government quality assurance country (Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Republic of Korea, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, and the United Kingdom).  Export authorizations include export licenses, exemptions, exceptions, and other approvals.  The contractor must also provide the contact information for an empowered official or export point of contact.   Continue Reading Proposed Rule Requires Certain Contractors to Provide Export Authorizations to DCMA

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In L3 Technologies, Inc., ASBCA Nos. 61811, et al. (Mar. 1, 2021), the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals (Board) granted the Government’s motion to dismiss the appeal, over the contractor’s objection, following the Contracting Officer’s (CO) unequivocal withdrawal of its cost disallowance claims. The contractor argued that its case was not moot despite

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On September 30, the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment issued a memorandum titled “Delegation of Defective Pricing Authority to the Defense Contract Management Agency,” describing DCMA’s new, enhanced role in TINA audits and subsequent disputes. The memo states that DCMA has created a “Defective Pricing Pilot Team,” which

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On October 1, the DoD IG released a report titled “Evaluation of Defense Contract Management Agency Actions on Reported DoD Contractor Business System Deficiencies,” asserting that DCMA contracting officers “repeatedly” failed to comply with DFARS requirements involving reported business system deficiencies.  The report, which is similar to a report issued on June 29, 2015 regarding