[Code of Federal Regulations]

[Title 48, Volume 1]

[Revised as of October 1, 2005]

From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access

[CITE: 48CFR15.403-3]



[Page 270-271]

 

            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 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.



[[Page 271]]



    (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]