A DCAA auditor recently contacted a client with a concern about their incurred cost submission for 2014, The auditor asked the following (contract information redacted):
“Inquiries:
1) In comparing on Schedule I to Schedule H, Schedule I, cell G30 ($38,287) and Schedule H, cell P36 ($34,579) are both values for FYE 2014 Costs, Subcontract XXXXXXXXXX. What accounts for the difference between these two numbers?”
If you could not guess, this was the T&M section of the Schedule I. This section of the Schedule I records the government’s costs while the section referred to in the Schedule H records the contractor’s costs. Under any reasonable circumstances they should not tie. A careful reading of DCAA’s own adequacy checklist confirms this (link to Schedule K not H).
Answering this type of question is a conversation I try to have over the telephone or in person. I avoid putting our response in writing due to the fear of focusing the adequacy discussion on the government and not the contractor.
I telephoned the auditor and she immediately agreed with my response but insisted that I reply in writing to provide a record of the response. This is when I guessed that the question originated with her supervisor and not herself. Apparently, a supervisor who survived the DCAA Internal 2008 Adequacy Crisis and is now a supervisor.