[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 48, Volume 1]
[Revised as of October 1, 2003]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 48CFR15.403-3]

[Page 259-260]
 
            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.  15.403-3  Requiring information other than cost or pricing data.

    (a) General. (1) The contracting officer is responsible for 
obtaining information that is adequate for evaluating the reasonableness 
of the price or determining cost realism, but the contracting officer 
should not obtain more information than is necessary (see 15.402(a)). If 
the contracting officer cannot obtain adequate information from sources 
other than the offeror, the contracting officer must require submission 
of information other than cost or pricing data from the offeror that is 
adequate to determine a fair and reasonable price (10 U.S.C. 2306a(d)(1) 
and 41 U.S.C. 254b(d)(1)). Unless an exception under 15.403-1(b) (1) or 
(2) applies, the contracting officer must require that the information 
submitted by the offeror include, at a minimum, appropriate information 
on the prices at which the same item or similar items have previously 
been sold, adequate for determining the reasonableness of the price. To 
determine the information an offeror should be required to submit, the 
contracting officer should consider the guidance in Section 3.3, Chapter 
3, Volume I, of the

[[Page 260]]

Contract Pricing Reference Guide cited at 15.404-1(a)(7).
    (2) The contractor's format for submitting the information should be 
used (see 15.403-5(b)(2)).
    (3) The contracting officer must ensure that information used to 
support price negotiations is sufficiently current to permit negotiation 
of a fair and reasonable price. Requests for updated offeror information 
should be limited to information that affects the adequacy of the 
proposal for negotiations, such as changes in price lists.
    (4) As specified in Section 808 of Public Law 105-261, an offeror 
who does not comply with a requirement to submit information for a 
contract or subcontract in accordance with paragraph (a)(1) of this 
subsection is ineligible for award unless the HCA determines that it is 
in the best interest of the Government to make the award to that 
offeror, based on consideration of the following:
    (i) The effort made to obtain the data.
    (ii) The need for the item or service.
    (iii) Increased cost or significant harm to the Government if award 
is not made.
    (b) Adequate price competition. When adequate price competition 
exists (see 15.403-1(c)(1)), generally no additional information is 
necessary to determine the reasonableness of price. However, if there 
are unusual circumstances where it is concluded that additional 
information is necessary to determine the reasonableness of price, the 
contracting officer shall, to the maximum extent practicable, obtain the 
additional information from sources other than the offeror. In addition, 
the contracting officer may request information to determine the cost 
realism of competing offers or to evaluate competing approaches.
    (c) Commercial items. (1) At a minimum, the contracting officer must 
use price analysis to determine whether the price is fair and reasonable 
whenever the contracting officer acquires a commercial item (see 15.404-
1(b)). The fact that a price is included in a catalog does not, in and 
of itself, make it fair and reasonable. If the contracting officer 
cannot determine whether an offered price is fair and reasonable, even 
after obtaining additional information from sources other than the 
offeror, then the contracting officer must require the offeror to submit 
information other than cost or pricing data to support further analysis 
(see 15.404-1).
    (2) Limitations relating to commercial items (10 U.S.C. 2306a(d)(2) 
and 41 U.S.C. 254b(d)). (i) The contracting officer must limit requests 
for sales data relating to commercial items to data for the same or 
similar items during a relevant time period.
    (ii) The contracting officer must, to the maximum extent 
practicable, limit the scope of the request for information relating to 
commercial items to include only information that is in the form 
regularly maintained by the offeror as part of its commercial 
operations.
    (iii) The Government must not disclose outside the Government 
information obtained relating to commercial items that is exempt from 
disclosure under 24.202(a) or the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 
552(b)).

[62 FR 51230, Sept. 30, 1997, as amended at 64 FR 51836, Sept. 24, 1999; 
65 FR 24321, Apr. 25, 2000]