Use of Commercial Services Item Authority (FAR Case 2008-034)

Summary:

FAC 2005-50 adopts as final, without change, an interim rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to implement section 868 of the Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009.

Section 868 provides that the FAR shall be amended with respect to the procurement of commercial services, specifically services that are not offered and sold competitively in substantial quantities in the commercial marketplace, but are of a type offered and sold competitively in substantial quantities in the commercial marketplace. These services may be considered commercial items only if the contracting officer has determined in writing that the offer or has submitted sufficient information to evaluate, through price analysis, the reasonableness of the price for such services. The rule details the information the contracting officer may consider in order to make this determination.

Supplementary Information:

I. Background

DoD, GSA, and NASA published an interim rule in the Federal Register at 74 FR 52852 on October 14, 2009, to implement section 868 of the Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009. The comment period closed on December 14, 2009.

Four respondents submitted comments on the interim rule. A discussion and analysis of the comments is here.

Dates:

The Effective Date for this final rule is 16 March 2011.

Click here to read the entire Federal Register notice for this rule.

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