Guidance on Personal Services (DFARS Case 2009-D028)

Summary:

DCN 20110505 adopts as final, with changes, the interim rule that amended the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to implement section 831 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009, which required DoD to develop guidance on personal services contracts.

Supplementary Information:

I. Background

Section 831 required DoD to mitigate the risks associated with personal services by developing guidance enabling contracting officers to better distinguish between personal services and non-personal services. The interim rule amended DFARS parts 211 and 237 to:

(1) require that statements of work or performance work statements clearly distinguish between Government employees and contractor employees and

(2) ensure that procedures are adopted to prevent contracts from being awarded or administered as unauthorized personal services contracts.

The interim rule included an internal requirement for a program manager, or equivalent, certification that the service contract requirement does not include an unauthorized personal services arrangement. Because of the differing missions of DoD agencies, the interim rule required agencies to adopt their own procedures.

DoD published an interim rule at 75 FR 54524 on September 8, 2010, to implement section 831 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009 (Pub. L. 110-417, enacted October 28, 2009). The period for public comment closed on November 8, 2010. Five respondents submitted comments to the proposed rule.