§ 1816.404-272 - Award fee evaluation periods.

(a) Award fee evaluation periods shall be at least 6 months in length. When appropriate, the procurement officer may authorize shorter evaluation periods after ensuring that the additional administrative costs associated with the shorter periods are balanced by benefits accruing to the Government. In some cases, such as developmental contracts with defined performance milestones (e.g., Preliminary Design Review, Critical Design Review, initial system test), the procurement officer may authorize evaluation periods at conclusion of the milestones rather than calendar dates, or in combination with calendar dates. In no case, however, shall an evaluation period be longer than 12 months.

(b) A portion of the total available award fee on a CPAF contract shall be allocated to each of the evaluation periods. This allocation may result in either an equal or unequal distribution of fee among the evaluation periods. The contracting officer should consider the nature of each contract and the incentive effects of fee distribution in determining the appropriate allocation structure. Allocation of fee on contracts for which periodic award fee evaluations are interim is for provisional fee payment purposes only. See 1816.404-273 (b) and (c).