[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 48, Volume 1]
[Revised as of October 1, 2002]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 48CFR15.403-4]

[Page 261-262]
 
            TITLE 48--FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATIONS SYSTEM
 
                CHAPTER 1--FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION
 
PART 15--CONTRACTING BY NEGOTIATION--Table of Contents
 
                     Subpart 15.4--Contract Pricing
 
Sec. 15.403-4  Requiring cost or pricing data (10 U.S.C. 2306a and 41 U.S.C. 254b).

    (a)(1) The contracting officer must obtain cost or pricing data only 
if the contracting officer concludes that none of the exceptions in 
15.403-1(b) applies.

[[Page 262]]

However, if the contracting officer has sufficient information available 
to determine price reasonableness, then the contracting officer should 
consider requesting a waiver under the exception at 15.403-1(b)(4). The 
threshold for obtaining cost or pricing data is $550,000. Unless an 
exception applies, cost or pricing data are required before 
accomplishing any of the following actions expected to exceed the 
current threshold or, for existing contracts, the threshold specified in 
the contract:
    (i) The award of any negotiated contract (except for undefinitized 
actions such as letter contracts).
    (ii) The award of a subcontract at any tier, if the contractor and 
each higher-tier subcontractor were required to submit cost or pricing 
data (but see waivers at 15.403-1(c)(4)).
    (iii) The modification of any sealed bid or negotiated contract 
(whether or not cost or pricing data were initially required) or any 
subcontract covered by paragraph (a)(1)(ii) of this subsection. Price 
adjustment amounts must consider both increases and decreases (e.g., a 
$200,000 modification resulting from a reduction of $400,000 and an 
increase of $200,000 is a pricing adjustment exceeding $550,000). This 
requirement does not apply when unrelated and separately priced changes 
for which cost or pricing data would not otherwise be required are 
included for administrative convenience in the same modification. 
Negotiated final pricing actions (such as termination settlements and 
total final price agreements for fixed-price incentive and 
redeterminable contracts) are contract modifications requiring cost or 
pricing data if--
    (A) The total final price agreement for such settlements or 
agreements exceeds the pertinent threshold set forth at paragraph (a)(1) 
of this subsection; or
    (B) The partial termination settlement plus the estimate to complete 
the continued portion of the contract exceeds the pertinent threshold 
set forth at paragraph (a)(1) of this subsection (see 49.105(c)(15)).
    (2) Unless prohibited because an exception at 15.403-1(b) applies, 
the head of the contracting activity, without power of delegation, may 
authorize the contracting officer to obtain cost or pricing data for 
pricing actions below the pertinent threshold in paragraph (a)(1) of 
this subsection, provided the action exceeds the simplified acquisition 
threshold. The head of the contracting activity shall justify the 
requirement for cost or pricing data. The documentation shall include a 
written finding that cost or pricing data are necessary to determine 
whether the price is fair and reasonable and the facts supporting that 
finding.
    (b) When cost or pricing data are required, the contracting officer 
shall require the contractor or prospective contractor to submit to the 
contracting officer (and to have any subcontractor or prospective 
subcontractor submit to the prime contractor or appropriate 
subcontractor tier) the following in support of any proposal:
    (1) The cost or pricing data.
    (2) A certificate of current cost or pricing data, in the format 
specified in 15.406-2, certifying that to the best of its knowledge and 
belief, the cost or pricing data were accurate, complete, and current as 
of the date of agreement on price or, if applicable, an earlier date 
agreed upon between the parties that is as close as practicable to the 
date of agreement on price.
    (c) If cost or pricing data are requested and submitted by an 
offeror, but an exception is later found to apply, the data must not be 
considered cost or pricing data as defined in 2.101 and must not be 
certified in accordance with 15.406-2.
    (d) The requirements of this subsection also apply to contracts 
entered into by an agency on behalf of a foreign government.

[62 FR 51230, Sept. 30, 1997, as amended at 65 FR 60553, Oct. 11, 2000; 
66 FR 2129, Jan. 10, 2001]