Learn How to Prepare and Survive a DCAA Audit By James Scott, Jr., CPA PENAN & SCOTT, P.C. Rockville, MD 1. Who is DCAA “The Auditor” • DCAA was established in 1965 by transferring the existing contract audit functions from each of the military services into a single contract audit agency. • It was established to perform contract audits for all DOD Components. 2 2. DCAA Mission • The DCAA Charter (DOD Directive 5105.36) states – – To serve the public interest as its primary customer, – To perform all necessary contract audits for Department of Defense 3 – To provide accounting and financial advisory services regarding contracts and subcontracts to all DOD components responsible for procurements and contract administration – To ensure taxpayer dollars are spent on fair and reasonable contract prices. 4 3. Typical Audits by DCAA Before contract award • Preaward accounting system survey • Financial capability determination • Evaluate contractor’s estimating system • Evaluate contractor’s initial price proposal 5 After contract award • Audit postaward accounting system • Audit contractor’s incurred cost (our focus) • Annual submission of actual cost on contracts • Process Contractor’s public vouchers and conduct payment reviews 6 Other duties of DCAA • Review contractor’s compliance with Cost Accounting Standards (applies to large contractors) • Audit Claims • Perform Defective pricing reviews under Truth-In Negotiations Act 7 4. What is a incurred cost submission • Incurred Cost Submissions are required for all cost reimbursements and flexibly priced contracts. Timely submittals are required to stay on direct billing. Use DCAA ICE model (www.dcaa.mil) 8 • FAR 52.216-7 states the contractor shall submit a final Indirect Cost Rate Proposal/ Incurred Cost Submission to the contracting officer (or cognizant federal agency) within six months of each fiscal year. • Timely submittals are required to stay on direct billing • Use DCAA ICE Model (www.dcaa.ml) 9 5. Audit • The audit of the Incurred Cost Submission is normally initiated by the government without a request from a contract officer. • This is different than a price proposal audit which is normally initiated by a contracting officer. • The audits are normally scheduled based on the receipt or expected receipt of a contractors Incurred Cost Submission. 10 • At any time before payment, the Contracting Officer may have the Contractor's invoices, or vouchers and statements of cost, audited. Any payment may be reduced by amounts found not to constitute allowable cost, or adjusted for prior overpayments. 11 • DCAA management policies and procedures require the Audit Offices to account for audits not completed and not started. • DCAA generally has one year after receipt of a complete submission to complete the audit. (Does not always happen and sometimes takes longer.) 12 • The model Incurred Cost Submission suggested by DCAA includes 32 schedules. It can be found at DCAA's website (www.dcaa.mil). Click on "Incurred Cost Electronically (ICE)". You will be able to access the ICE model and Chapter 6 of the DCAA Publication "Information for Contractors". Chapter 6 will provide the latest list of information DCAA is looking for as part of this submission. If a schedule is not applicable, add it and mark it "Not Applicable". This will avoid a letter requesting the missing information. 13 Schedules typically requested are: • Schedule A ~ Summary of Claimed Indirect Rates • Schedule B ~ Schedule of General & Administrative Expenses (Final Indirect Cost Pool) • Schedule C ~ Schedule of Overhead Expenses (Final Indirect Cost Pool) • Schedule D ~ Intermediate Cost Indirect Expense Pool (s) • Schedule E ~ Schedule of Bases Used to Allocate Indirect Expenses (Claimed Allocation Bases) 14 • Schedule F ~ Computation of Facilities Capital Cost of Money Factors • Schedule G ~ Reconciliation of Cost Booked to Cost Claimed (Direct) • Schedule H ~ Schedule of Direct Costs by Contract/ Subcontract and • Indirect Expenses Applied at Claimed Rate • Schedule H1 ~ Schedule of Government Participation in Indirect Expense Pools 15 • Schedule I ~ Reconciliation of Cumulative Direct & Indirect Cost Claimed and Billed • Schedule J ~ Subcontract Information • Schedule K ~ Summary of Hours and Amounts on T&M/ Labor Hour Contracts by Task Order • Schedule L ~ Reconciliation of Total Payroll Included in the Overhead Submission to Quarterly Form 941's to Total Labor Distribution 16 • Schedule M ~ Schedule of Decisions/Agreements/ Approvals and Description of Accounting Changes and Organizational Changes • Schedule N ~ Certificate of Final Indirect Costs • Schedule O ~ Contract Closing Information for Contracts Completed in this Fiscal Year. (Include all contracts.) 17 Additional schedules and attachments required: • Attachment 1 ~ Comparative Analysis of Indirect Expenses by Account with the Prior Year • Attachment 2 ~ Executive Compensation for Five Top Executives • Attachment 3 ~ List of ACO's and PCO's for Each Flexibly Priced Contract • Attachment 4 ~ Information on Prime Contracts Under Which Effort is Performed as a Subcontractor 18 • Attachment 5 ~ List of Work Sites and Number of Employees Assigned to Each Site (Floor check performed.) • Attachment 6 ~ Description of the Accounting System • Attachment 7 ~ Procedures for Identifying and Recording Unallowable Costs • Attachment 8 ~ Copies of Certified or Other Financial Statements (Do not need an audited F/S.) 19 • Attachment 9 ~ Management Letter from Outside CPA's Concerning Internal Control Weaknesses (If no audit, then N/A.) • Attachment 10 ~ Corrective Actions Implemented or To Be Implemented to Correct Internal Control Weaknesses • Attachment 11 ~ Listing of Internal Audit Reports Issued During the Year • Attachment 12 ~ Listing of Scheduled Internal Audits for the Year 20 • Attachment 13 ~ Copies of Federal and State Income Tax Returns • Attachment 14 ~ SEC 10-K Report (Public Companies) • Attachment 15 ~ Minutes of Board of Directors Meeting (Protected information could include date of meetings - upon request only) • Attachment 16 ~ List of Delay, Disruption and Termination Claims Which Contain Costs Relating to this Year • Attachment 17 ~ Contract Briefs 21 6. Accounting for Unallowable Cost (FAR 31.205) • Unallowable cost must be separately accounted for, excluded from billings, claims and proposals. • Unallowable cost also include any cost generated solely as a result of incurring another cost which would not have been incurred had the cost not been incurred. 22 Example: a) Entertainment and travel to entertainment, meals at event b) Advertising and public relations, promotional materials, souvenirs c) Bad debts, collections fees and associated costs d) Contingencies – indeterminable future events e) Contributions or donations regardless of the recipient or form of donation f) Entertainment 23 g) Fines and penalties resulting from violations of Federal, state, local or foreign laws h) Interest – all is unallowable i) Lobbying and political activity cost j) Losses on other contracts k) Organization cost – includes initial organization cost, reorganization, merger acquisition (includes attorney, accountant and brokers cost) l) Goodwill m) Alcoholic beverages 24 • Failure to exclude unallowable cost will result in penalties based on the amount of cost. The penalty can be as high as 300% of the amount of unallowable cost. 25 • Once the contractor is notified of the beginning of the audit, the submission is subject to penalties. After that any changes to the submission to remove previously submitted unallowable cost will be subject to penalties. Prior to the beginning of the audit process, contractor can adjust to remove unallowable cost and avoid the penalties. 26 7. Items to have ready for the audit: • • • • General Ledger Chart of Accounts Income Tax Returns Detail General Ledger including labor distribution records, time sheets, etc. • Original Source Documents for all transactions such as vendor invoices • Job Cost Records, Ledgers and Cost Reports • Payroll Records • Billing records by contract • Company Policy and Procedures Manual • Any other documents to be considered during the audit 27 Questions and Discussions… 28 29
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